Clustered Realities
by BeigeProse
Summary: Three years of relative peace and all of it comes to a head. Krillin hadn't really thought about how the world worked, about getting stronger because he hadn't felt the need to. But things quickly change as news of an invasion forces all of them to get stonger, to be better.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"It's been too long, I feel," I said as I reclined against the roof. It was a nice day out, clouds in the sky and giving shade from the sun, though there was the drift of a warm current of wind coming from the sea.

Goku reclined on the roof beside me, looking more down than up. I followed his gaze and a smile touched my face. He was watching Gohan who was playing doing his best in chasing Oolong who'd turned into a hummingbird. With how fast Oolong was and how he could quickly change direction, it was looking to be an impossible task.

"Yeah," he said and he reclined. _"Peace,"_ he said. "It's weird."

I turned to look at him, his scrunched expression in minor discomfort. "You mean it's boring. You had that same expression last year. I saw it in the tournament too."

Goku sighed. "It just isn't challenging anymore. It's been three years and…Piccolo's done nothing. Just looming, growing in strength."

"Careful there, or I might start to think that you're actively looking for a fight."

"I'm not looking," said Goku. "But I wouldn't mind if one popped up." He looked in my direction. "Maybe if you hadn't been slacking on your training you might give me a run for my money," Goku said with a grin.

"That ship's long past," I muttered. I shook my head. "Nope. I like this. The reason I took up fighting in the first place when I was younger was…weak. Selfish and not very good for the long term. I don't think I'll ever really pick up fighting again."

Goku sighed. "That's a pity. You really were great fighter," he said. "Resourceful in a way I wasn't."

"Oh, shucks," I said, a grin plastered on me. "More of that and you're going to make me turn beet-red."

Goku mirrored my grin. "It's true though," said Goku and then he sighed. He was sighing a lot I noticed. "I just worry about things like this. How more and more, people are forgetting about the Ki Arts. How, in terms of raw power, I'm the most powerful person and it looks like I might be stuck that way for the rest of my life."

"You've been thinking about this a lot," I said.

Goku let out a chuckle. "Of course, I have," he said. "You remember our first tournament and how thrilling it was? Remember when we had to fight Chiaotzu and Tien, and then the Demon King Piccolo. Then everything just petered out. I've been able to win the last three tournaments by just turning up. Chi-Chi loves it, of course, it means we don't have to burden Dad about money. But me?"

He shook his head.

"I've just been fighting for so long that, I don't think I even know what I'm supposed to do when I'm not. There's raising Gohan, but that's different. Chi-Chi does the brunt of the work, raising him up to be…not me."

Goku went quiet and I didn't speak up because I wasn't sure what to say. It was shameful to think, but I hadn't really considered that he might have layers to him, that there was something _beyond_ the happiness. He reclined, head on his arms and looking up at the sky with a forlorn expression.

"Okay," I said.

"Okay what?" he said.

"I'll start training again, _really_ training," I said. "Just so you can stop looking so…" I gestured at his general person.

Goku grinned and then that grin slipped. "You'll have a lot of ground to cover. I don't mean this the wrong way but you've always been…lazy."

"Have not. I just…work smarter not harder. I leave the latter to you," I said giving him a light punch to the shoulder. "It'll probably be the same here. I don't think I could ever really catch up so I'll work to get back the air of unpredictability I had."

"Well, you could," said Goku. At my expression he said, "Catch up. But Kami would think that that's wasteful and not allow it."

"Allow what?" I asked.

"Never mind," said Goku, shaking his head. "It's part of the stuff that I learned while I was up there. Kami made me promise him not to divulge. I think the main reason he told me all of it was because he wanted me to become Guardian."

"I still can't believe you said no," I said, a wistful air to my voice. "I don't think I could ever have said no to becoming a _god."_

"It just wasn't the thing for me," he said. "I wanted to be walking the Earth, facing its challenges and getting stronger. Now I'm thinking that I should have taken the offer. But then, Piccolo's still out there, he might still act. He'd use the opportunity while I was still…acclimatising."

"You've said that," I said. "Anyway, a year from now, at the next tournament. I'll work to take away your source of income."

"That'll be awesome," he said. "It also means that it might keep the tax man off of me. There was a case last year that—" There was a hiss and Bulma's blue hair popped up; she had a sleek jetpack against her back, blue flames shooting from slots to keep her aloft.

She moved forward and landed on the roof. "What are you guys talking about?" she said, walking forward and finding a spot on the roof. Her jetpack hissed, the bits of metal shifting and the entire configuration changing so that the jetpack was smaller against her back.

"I was telling Krillin that the money I make from the tournaments is close to being taxed," he said.

"Really?" said Bulma.

Goku nodded. "They say, considering that most of my time is spent training and that my family lives off the money I win off of it, it can be considered revenue instead of fortuitous gain. So, it's supposed to be in my taxable income…It was really long. I'm thinking of not entering the next tournament just not to win the money. It's not like Chi-Chi and I need any more of it."

"Even with your diet?" said Bulma. "I'd imagine it was worse since it's you and Gohan now."

"Chi-Chi bought a lot of land with the money," Goku said. "She has me farming various animals as livestock. It fills my days."

"I didn't know about this," I said.

"It's relatively new," said Goku. "Because—" He stopped, bolting to his feet much faster than me. A well of immense energy flying too fast into my range.

"Piccolo?" I said.

Goku shook his head. "I've been keeping track of him. I know how big his well is. This." He shook his head. "It's too big and in too short a timeframe to be him."

"Then what does this mean? Power like this isn't something that can just pop up. Unless someone's used the dragon balls—"

"That's not possible," said Goku. "I have a dragon ball. But it could have been a wish that was made some time ago. But why now, why are they coming here."

"What is it?" said Bulma. "What's going on?"

"Someone really powerful is coming here," said Goku. "Whether they're friend or foe, we don't know. But we're sure it's not one of our friends." Goku looked down, where Gohan had stopped playing and instead was with Master Roshi.

"Bulma, take everyone and fly out of here. If they're an enemy. I don't want anyone getting hurt. Krillin—"

"I'm staying," I said.

Bulma gave a short nod and then jumped off the roof. The jetpack quickly reconfigured, thrusters coming alight and halting her downward momentum. She reached into her side and pulled out a capsule, throwing it; there was a poof and a sleek yellow jet appeared.

Master Roshi, Bulma, Gohan and Oolong quickly moved into the got into jet while turtle moving into the ocean and disappeared. The jet came alive, lifting into the air and then spearing in a north-westerly direction, there was a massive boom as it disappeared into the distance.

"If they're an enemy," I said.

"Let's not think that way," said Goku. "Let's deal with this as it comes. Right now, we have no reason to think they're an enemy. Hiding energy is second nature to almost all of us. But to hide it so completely."

The energy got closer, getting more oppressive the closer it came. The person was flying faster than any person I'd ever felt before, even Goku on the Nimbus. A few minutes and I could see them, a speck in the distance. An extra set of seconds and the speck became a large and muscular man.

And then he was stopping in the air in front of us. A large man with tanned skin, hair that spilled back, past his back and waist, and stopping near his knees. The man wore brown armour, though it didn't look like it was protecting much, more a stylistic combat suit than anything else, a peculiar device was connected to his ear, stretching to cover his eye.

A wicked grin spread itself over the man as he stopped, his eyes set on Goku. He let out a loud and excited bellow before he moved so quickly that we couldn't react, stopping in front of Goku and wrapping his arms around him.

"You're alive, little brother," the man said, spinning a frozen Goku around. "I mean you're a little weaker than you should be," he said, pulling back. "But kid. I thought you were dead. Wouldn't even have known it was you if it wasn't that you're the spitting image of Dad. Wait a minute. Kakkarot, where's your tail?"

"Um…I cut it off," Goku said absently. He pulled himself back and a little away. "Who are you? I'm sorry, but…Dad? You said you were my brother?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I am," said the man, though he was wearing a frown. "I was really surprised to see the state of this place. That you hadn't destroyed it like you were supposed to. But good thing because if you had you'd probably have died on this pitiful planet."

"Destroy…" Goku shook his head. "I don't know anything about what you're talking about. Let's go through this, slowly. Who are you?"

"Raditz," the man said. "Son of Bardock. A proud Saiyan warrior who aids our King, Vegeta. You are Kakkarot. My brother. Not that we've actually seen each other. When you were born, Dad was…He was acting weird. He sent me off on a mission, ordered me not to come back until help came."

"Why would he do that. But, wait, I'm an alien?" said Goku.

"Of course, you are," said Bardock. He unwound his tail, letting it stretch out. "You look nothing like these things," he said, the tail pointing at me. "What is this even doing with you? Is it your pet?"

"No, Krillin's my friend," said Goku. "And my name's Goku, not Kakkarot. I—"

"You've gone native," Raditz interrupted. "Not that it's not to be expected. All this time spent with these…what even are these creatures."

"Humans," I said.

"Humans," said Raditz, the word slow and measured. "Weak little things aren't they. I met one of them and it tried to kill me with a small projectile. It quivered when I caught the damned thing. But I digress. King Vegeta sent me here to see if you were still alive. Now that you are, we can go back to him and work towards getting vengeance for our home planet."

"Leave?" said Goku. "I can't do that. This is my home."

"This is not your home, Kakkarot," said Raditz, his tone filled with heat. "Your home was a wondrous place, filled with the strongest race in the known universe. This doesn't even measure up to that. But we'll have to destroy this place to make sure that Frieza doesn't cotton on to the fact that you failed in your mission. That another Saiyan is still alive."

Raditz turned around, looking at everything. "But it'll have to be done right. Make sure that the damage looks old. Between the pair of us it shouldn't take us too long and then we'll be on our way to meeting the King. First, we should find your pod. Do you know where it is?"

"Stop for a second," said Goku. He was shaking his head. "You're saying too much and I don't even think you realise what you're saying. You're saying that you want to destroy my _home._ "

"This is not your home," Raditz insisted.

"Even so," I said. "Even if it isn't his home, what about all the people alive on this planet? You'd just kill them?"

"They're going to die anyway," said Raditz. "Whether it's now or when Frieza's forces eventually arrive. This way, _you_ survive Kakkarot. You get to enjoy the splendour of battle as we avenge our father, our _mother,_ our _planet._ "

Goku shook his head. "I'm sorry but no," he said. "I can't just do that. I can't just destroy everything I've known because you say so. You've got to understand. This is more my home than where we're originally from."

Raditz expression was unreadable before he let out a huff, nodding. "I get it," he said. "I get it." I could see Goku calming down a little, his guard slacking. "It's an attachment to this place. But once it's gone you'll be better."

Raditz moved quickly, a chop directed at Goku. The man dodged, weaving under the chop and getting close; I felt as Goku opened the connection to his well and power flood into his system. Goku kicked, striking Raditz in the chest and sending him flying back.

The Saiyan quickly stopped himself, a frown on his face.

"Damned thing," he said and he pressed his ear. I could see a light blink on in the glass over his eye. "Either it's not working or you can hide your power somehow. You're not as weak as I thought brother."

"I'm not going to let you destroy the Earth," said Goku, his expression cold and yet with a glimmer of excitement. I felt as more of his energy seeped from his well into his body. Raditz grinned as the light over his eye blinked.

"Yes," he said. "Hiding power. I wonder how. This sort of power could be a boon for the King's plans."

"We could teach it to you," I said. "We could make a deal. Don't destroy the Earth and it could benefit you in knowledge you might not otherwise know."

"Like what?" said Raditz. "As impressive as this technique is, it's not much when compared to Frieza's power."

"What about the ability to sense energy?" I said. "Aren't you curious how we knew you were coming? We don't have that device on us to sense energy and yet we knew that you were coming and that you were strong. We knew ahead enough that we were able to send people away."

"I saw that," said Raditz. "And I was curious. My gratitude for sating my curiosity. But it still doesn't measure up. There's too much risk in this planet being in the state it's in. Frieza might seek to investigate and that would be at our disadvantage. It's most expedient to destroy this planet instead."

"To do that, you'll have to go through me," said Goku, his fists clenching.

"I'm thrilled at seeing your full power, brother," said Raditz. He dropped, landing on the beach. Goku jumped off the roof and landed. He started stripping, taking off his shirt, boots and armbands.

Rolling his arms in relief as he did.

I followed, pulling off the weighted parts of my clothes and landed on the ground, standing beside Goku.

"You too, _human,_ " said Raditz. "You think you measure up?"

"This is my home," I said. "I don't think I'd feel good if I just let you destroy it without a fight."

"Honourable," said Raditz. "Had we more ships you might have joined us." The larger man not into a stance, Goku and I mirroring though our stances were different. "Give me a challenge."

Goku moved first, darting forward; he punched and Raditz wove to the side. The large man turned and extended a hand; Goku curled into a ball and rolled out of the way. I entered the fray, getting close and uncapping: Power flooded through me and I moved faster, elbow extended and going for his core.

Raditz braced and didn't budge at the impact; his tail lashed out, grabbing me around the throat and throwing. I couldn't stop myself fast enough and I crashing into the house. I quickly moved forward to see Goku trying to land a punch but Raditz weaving out of the way of each hit.

The man's well spiked, energy surging, before Goku was thrown back by a shockwave.

"Not strong enough, brother," said Raditz. "And _you're_ definitely not close to being strong enough to take me human. This is futile brother. Stop fighting me or I'll be forced to hurt you."

Goku snarled and darted forward. He tried again but Raditz was still faster, though this time Goku was prepared for a counterattack. He dodged out of the way, landing on the ground on all fours before he pushed off.

The motion caught Raditz off guard and Goku slammed into him, pushing both of them towards the sea. Raditz quickly got his bearing and grabbed Goku by the body, spinning and then throwing him against the ground.

I started to move forward before I stopped. Raditz was too powerful to confront head on and doing so would be our undoing, or at least my own. From the looks of it Raditz didn't want to kill Goku, instead he wanted to hurt him enough that he wouldn't fight.

We could use that to our advantage, but I didn't know how. Instead what I knew was that a straight fight wasn't the option. We had to catch him so off guard that he couldn't attack and I had an idea.

Goku was up and he was preparing to go at Raditz again but I spiked the amount of energy running though my body. He stopped short and looked in my direction.

"Giving up already, human?" asked Raditz. "It's the smarter play. I might actually make this quick if you give me reason to."

"No," I said. "I'm sure we'll win. I just don't want to fork out the cash to fix this place if it gets destroyed. Can we move this place somewhere else?"

Raditz let out a guffaw. "I _do_ like you human. I like you so much I might well consider letting you squeeze into my pod." Raditz's grin slipped as he turned north east. "That'll be the Namekian, won't it?"

 _Namekian?_ I had time to think before a well of power entered my range.

"Piccolo," I head Goku mutter.

"That's your play then?" said Raditz. "Giving yourselves time before the reinforcements arrive?" The man shrugged. "I don't mind if it's three against one. It'll mean _less_ of a disadvantage on your side, though not by much…But then, he probably can hide too."

Raditz dropped and landed.

"He's so far away from home," the Saiyan continued. "Probably has a ship." He grinned as he looked in our direction. "Okay, Kakkarot. Okay. The Namekian has a ship I could probably pilot given a little time. It'll probably be bigger than our pods so you can choose people to join our cause. The planet still has to go but at least it's something, right?"

Goku shook his head. "It's still killing the billions of lives that call the Earth home."

Raditz let out a frustrated sigh. "You're really starting to piss me off, Kakkarot. I'm trying to make this better for you and you're just throwing it back to my face. This is me _helping_ you."

"Helping me?" said Goku. "You want to destroy my planet. Helping me would be finding another way."

"There is no other way," said Raditz, desperation in his voice. "Even this, what little we're doing, is a long shot. We can't afford to take any undue risks."

Piccolo got closer.

"Maybe if you explained to us _what_ you're so afraid of we might able to help," I put in.

Raditz looked at me for a long moment before he said, "Frieza. The most powerful being in the known universe, with the power to destroy _planets_ and still have enough power in reserve to destroy a moon. But that's not even why he's such a great threat. No, _that_ is because he's essentially the Emperor of the universe.

"Through the World Trade Organisation he scours planets and sells them to interested parties. He subjugates worlds so he can have access to their resources. We Saiyans were part of his work force, his main militia, but for some reason he saw fit to destroy our planet, our entire culture."

"But he left you alive," I said. "Enough that it looks like you're still in his employ."

"He doesn't know we know," said Raditz. "There were only three people that were there that knew about the destruction of Planet Vegeta. Frieza himself and his two guards, Zarbon and Dodoria."

"That means one of them is working with you, then," I said. "Either because they were gloating or because they're also working to defeat Frieza. This is much larger than just you, isn't it? Why don't you make it larger? We can help."

"You keep saying that, human, but I don't see anything special about this planet that might be able to help us," said Raditz.

I looked at Goku for a long moment, hoping that he was thinking along the same track that I was. It was dangerous, what with the information we would be giving up, but he was stronger and stopping this with words was our best options.

"We have the dragon balls," I said. Goku frowned, his brow quirking in question. "They're mystical objects that can grant any wish that the user has, within limits. We could give them to you. The right wish and things could be better. The right person coming back to life or your entire planet for that matter."

"That's impossible," said Raditz. "That type of magic—"

"It's possible," I interrupted. "I've died before and yet here I stand."

Piccolo appeared, already pulling off his cloak and throwing it into the sea. He landed, already in a fighting stance.

"Good that you're finally here, Namekian," said Raditz. "Do me a favour and tell me where your ship is."

"That mean you're not going to take my offer?" I asked.

"I don't know," said Raditz. "Show me these things and their power and I'll take the offer back to King Vegeta."

"That's where things get a little complicated," I said. "The dragon balls are scattered all throughout the Earth. Finding them usually takes a few months, scouring through rumours and auctions for rare artefacts."

"How convenient," said Raditz.

I shrugged. "Yes," I said. "But I can at least show you one of them. It's indestructible, that should be sign enough that the it's magic is powerful. Give me an hour to get it here?"

"Time for more reinforcements, huh?" said Raditz. He shrugged, crossing his arms. "Fine, I'll wait. I'll open myself up to this obvious trap. But if I sense too many people converging in on this location, I'll fly loose. You go, human, Kakkarot and the Namekian stay here. I don't want the lot of you planning. Who knows what other tricks you have up your sleeves."

I nodded and then jumped into the sky, taking off in the direction Bulma and the others had gone. I pushed more energy and started flying faster, hoping that I would feel Master Roshi in the least. I spent ten minutes in flight before I felt Master Roshi's well of power; I had to change direction a little, but a few seconds passed before I could see the sleek jet making its way towards me.

I stopped and it stopped too, getting into a hover before the door opened. I got in. Gohan was clinging on to Oolong, with the man talking to him in a soft voice while the boy just shivered.

"I need—" I started before I was interrupted.

"We know," said Bulma. "Do you think this was a good idea?"

"I didn't have anything better to go on," I said. "I just wanted to buy us more time. He's leagues more powerful than Goku and me and even Piccolo who looks like he's going to fight on our side. He doesn't know about the scanner and the power the dragon balls bring is too great for it not to be appealing. I think he'll expand the effort to search for them."

"The great amount of evil that could be committed," said Master Roshi. "We don't know what their allegiance could be. Even in the short space of time that you've been in flight he's been threatening to torture Piccolo if he doesn't tell him the placement of his ship."

"I know," I said and sighed, running a hand over my head. "He seems desperate about avenging his planet. I just don't know if this behaviour is because of the sheer odds against them or his disposition."

"It's the planet that's in stake," said Bulma. "A mistake would be massive. We might be wrong, but right now it's better we opt on the side of cautions and 'take care' of Raditz before he can pull through on his threat."

"You make it sound like you have a plan," I said.

"No, but you do," she said. "You have a reason for being here. You have a reason for overestimating the amount of time it would take for you to reach us. What can we do?"

"We can kill Raditz," I said. "It really won't be that hard even with how powerful he is."

"How?" asked Bulma.

"A really powerful gun as well as very thick metal," I said. "How resistant we make ourselves is really dependant on the amount of focus and energy that we push into a particular point. It's the reason I invented the Destructo Disc, a lot of energy concentrated in the blade of the energy disc."

"Shooting at a far enough position with a powerful enough gun means that he won't expect it," said Bulma. "The bullet will pass through him just as it would anyone else. But then, he'll be as sturdy as Goku is, even with energy coursing through him." She nodded. "I'll get working on that, a few hours before I get things in order?"

I nodded pointing a hand towards Gohan. The ball on his hat glowed as a blue-green membrane appeared around it. I pulled and the ball jerked through the air and landed in my hand.

"It might be in our best interest that we start collecting the rest of the dragon balls," I said. "Make sure he can't get them."

"I can get on that," said Oolong. "Doing _something_ since I won't be in the thick of it."

"I'll be heading back then," said I said.

"Before you go," said Bulma. "You should expect trouble soon. I received notification from Capsule Corp that an UFO entered the Earth's atmosphere. Our systems are state of the art, far better than most, but there'll be other players who'll have heard. The military amongst them."

"He'll think it's an ambush," I said. "It'll be odd if I tell him that, though. He'll rightly think I've been planning this."

"Hopefully I'll head them off," said Bulma. "But the military can be pig-headed at times. Good luck out there."

I nodded and then jumped off, flying back to Turtle Island. It was a growing speck in the distance when a voice reverberated through my head.

 _Solar Flare._

I knew the plan and as I flew forward, watched for the right moment as I saw the three of them on the beach. Raditz was looking upward in my direction, arms crossed and mouth moving in speech; my hands splayed over my face as I said, "Solar Flare!"

All at once there was a flare of activity, Goku moving forward and spinning around as Raditz spun his arms wildly. He ducked low and then grabbed Raditz's tail as it was extended. Goku pulled but was what was supposed to happened, Raditz all at once losing access to his well, didn't, instead there was a flare of power, Goku and Piccolo being pushed back.

 _Attack,_ I heard and I stopped in the air, letting energy flood from my core into my hand; a ball appeared, already spinning. I imagined the ball being squashed by an invisible force. The ball, still spinning, got thinner and thinner until it was a spinning disc in my hand.

In the battlefield below, Raditz had already gained enough of his sense that he was fighting back, mainly keeping Goku back through a series of shockwaves. Piccolo was standing, his body crackling but the power surging around his right hand.

I flared my energy and Goku reacted, pulling back and spinning out of the way. I threw and the disc, large and unwieldly, speared through the air toward Raditz. There was another shockwave, energy pulsing outwards but the disc cut through it, getting closer; before it could hit Raditz jumped to the side, but it was a little too late and the disc caught a side, taking off a leg and a portion of the still extended tail.

Raditz screamed.

Another shockwave ripped through the island, pushing everything back and destroying Master Roshi's house. Piccolo's attempt at gathering power was all at once abandoned as he jumped into the air, pushing himself back from the full force of the shockwave; Goku wasn't so lucky, he was swept back, sent tumbling through the air.

"Special Beam Cannon!" Piccolo shouted and a purple beam shot out of his finger, cutting through the pulsing series of shockwaves; Raditz titled to get out of the way but the beam was wide enough that it grazed him, taking a chunk out of his torso.

Raditz couldn't hold himself aloft as he was sent tumbling through the air, slamming into the crashing waves. His reserves were still going strong but that didn't mean much when he'd suffered fatal damage, when every passing second meant he was losing a lot of blood and was closing in on his death.

The moment he died the access he had to his well would disappear.

Goku flew out of the water, breathing hard and looking towards the water. Then he flew down, spearing in.

"Idiot," I heard Piccolo say. "He's going to save him."

"I know," I said. "It's his brother."

"He's a threat," said Piccolo.

"So were you and we let you live," I said. Piccolo's expression scrunched in distaste, teeth bared. "We did a lot of damage on him. It'll be a long time before he heals enough that he'll be able to fight us. That gives us time for Goku to convince him of another path. If we have him on our side, it means we might have a way of communicating with the others that'll come here when he doesn't return."

"There're others?"

I nodded. "It's a long story. One I'm not sure if we should tell you. Are you going to become a problem, Piccolo?"

Piccolo snorted. "You say that like you'd be able to stop me if I were," he said.

"You don't know that I wouldn't."

Piccolo folded his arm. "I won't be a problem," he said. Goku speared out of the water and then started flying east.

Where he was headed hit and I flew faster, intercepting and stopping him. Goku's face shone with betrayal as he looked at me. "Krillin, I have to save him."

"I know," I said. "But not like this. Not with the Senzu Beans. The North Capitol is close enough that you could reach it in a few minutes. Enough time that doctors will be able to patch him up."

"He could die," said Goku, desperation in his voice.

"Just as he could die on the trip to the Lookout," I said. "GO!"

Goku didn't think twice. He changed direction, heading north-east.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Hello, Mr Krillin," said the man. He was tall, wearing a dark suite with a red trim, a white shirt that was a little garish against his auburn fur. "I'm Lieutenant Hallow and I'll be questioning you about the events that occurred today."

The room around us was on the larger side, walls made from grey metal with only one window to the side. I could feel wells beyond, all around me, but they were underdeveloped, not strong enough that they could pose a true challenge if I was paying attention. But I had to pay attention.

Raditz had been defeated because he hadn't known the full measure of our 'tricks.' We'd used them to quickly counter him, tearing through the insurmountable energy reserves that he had and made them redundant. It was very likely that the same could be achieved here, by the military and I had to be cognizant of that.

"Is Raditz, the alien, okay?" I asked.

"He's still in critical condition," Hallow replied. "But the Gero Foundation have finally arrived and their people are working on him which means that he'll be alive long enough, at least, to give us information."

"I doubt he will," I said. "He'll be pissed more than anything, and he doesn't necessarily need full body of motion to be able to destroy us all."

"And why is that?" asked Hallow, unbuttoning his blazer and taking a seat.

I scowled in his direction. "Please don't insult my intelligence," I said. "I know you've been watching. You probably have an audio file of the entire thing in your information database."

Hallow shook his head. "That's not how it works," he said. "The Turtle Isles are under Lord Roshi's patronage. Under law, no surveillance activities can take place there without his prior agreement. Hence why you are being questioned, to give us a greater picture so we might best deal with this situation."

I shrugged, not exactly believing what he was telling me but it didn't matter. "Raditz is an alien, from a planet named Vegeta. Apparently, he was here for his brother, Goku. The one with the spikey hair."

"Mr Son," said Hallow. "He's an alien?"

I nodded. "We didn't know. _He_ didn't know. But it's apparently so. It should have been obvious, quite honestly. What with the fact that he had a tail when he was younger, than he was sturdier than he should have been, and that he never got sick. But…" I shrugged. "So much happens in this planet that seems magical and this was easy to explain away. But that's not the important part. Far from it. The important part is that we might have an invasion on our hands."

With that I explained to him everything I knew. About the pieces that Raditz had filled in, about Frieza and the World Trade Organisation, that it was expedient for Vegeta's forces to expect him here to finish off the work that Raditz couldn't.

"Earth needs to be able to protect itself," I said. "Beyond what ever petty squabbles there are. The minor skirmishes between Emperor Pilaf and the Den, or the fighting to secure the Lord Lucifer's land. Because there's a greater threat out there and it's even more powerful than the Demon King Piccolo."

"You paint a very vivid image," he said, his voice sounding calm though watching his overall expression I could see that I'd had an impact on him. "But there are a few things I'm missing, a set of pieces in the greater picture. The Demon 'King' among them. Apparently, he still lives."

I nodded. "I'm surprised you've only now noticed."

"We are too," said Hollow. "Looking at the records, at our surveillance. We should have noticed him sooner. He's been alive for three years and in that time, he's managed to grow younger. He's walked in towns and cities and yet, it looks, we've been ignoring him, acting as though he's not there. No mass panic, no call for the military to act. Just silence. Can you explain that to me?"

"It could be a whole host of things," I said. "It could be telepathy on a large scale, affecting everyone who doesn't have a resistance, or it might be magic replicating the effects of telepathy. Geared towards Piccolo."

"Except it no longer works now," said Hollow. "Or at least not in the same vein? We know that the Demon King was there, fighting with you, he was spotted flying near the East Capitol, we're cognizant of that and yet he's now just disappeared. That doesn't make sense to us."

"To me too," I said. "But then the information we have is limited." I sighed, running a hand over my head. "Can I go now? I've got to speak to Goku, figure out how we're going to deal with this."

Hollow looked towards the glass for a second before he nodded. I got up, following as he escorted me out of the building, past men dressed in black armoured clothing, bands that were made of segmented metal attached around their arms, and large shoulder pads made of the same blocky metal.

A few flights of stairs and then I was out of the facility, a little outside of the North Capitol and configured fifteen minutes after we'd arrived. Looking at it, the large structure with myriads of people milling about, jets entering and leaving and the copious amounts of security making sure that Raditz would have a tough time escaping and that no one from the general populace knew what was going on.

How different, how much harder would all of this be if Capsule Corp hadn't invented their storage capsules?

"There's a barrier around this place to stop flier from being able to just enter at will," said Hallow. "Use the exit and you should be fine."

"Where's Goku?" I asked.

"He agreed to being studied by the Foundation's scientist. Learning about the physiology of the Saiyan race at its peak might help us come up with ways to exploiting their weaknesses. It helps solve this without needing to fight."

"I just told you about everything," I said.

"We work fast," said Hallow, a smug grin on him.

"That's good," I said. "What's needed if we're going to survive all of this."

He gave me a nod; his expression having turned serious. Hallow gestured and another military personnel escorted me to the exits where I was checked over and then let out of military installation; the outside was different from the inside, where the inside was ordered, there was a mill of activity from the Earth's journalist.

Far enough from the base and they started flooding forward before I jumped into the air. There was surprise from some while others reached into their pockets, running away from the group and releasing airships from their capsules.

I sighed, pushing myself faster before the airships could get into the air. Luckily, they weren't the same models as Bulma's which meant they were slow enough that I could outpace them; I headed past the North Capitol and towards the mountains, fluctuating the energy running through me so that the cold wasn't _as_ bad.

I concentrated, feeling out for wells until I found two; I had to change direction, moving into an ice storm. It helped me hide further from some of the more rambunctious reporters that were still chasing me. I veered down, looking until an idea popped into my head of a location and direction, no doubt Chiaotzu.

It didn't take long before I found the base hidden within a cave.

"Krillin," said Tien, his expression grim. "I've been itching to know what's been going on. No one has that much energy that I know about. Who was that?"

"Raditz, an alien," I said, "and Goku's brother." Their expressions shifted. I told them everything that had happened, the plans that I'd already pushed into play with the military and everything that I'd had Bulma prepare before everything was a head.

"That was dangerous," said Chiaotzu. "You telling them our weakness."

"I told Bulma that weakness," I said. "And anyway, it's needed. It poses a danger to us, sure, but…It was looking like the humanity might be destroyed and I didn't know what Piccolo and Goku were planning. It made the most amount of sense to have that on the back burner."

"I know," said Chiaotzu, a sigh behind the words. "But…" He sighed again. "This does away with a secret that's been kept for as long as there have been Ki practitioners, and with the secret spread across a few people the magic that keeps the secret is waning."

"The magic?" I said.

"Master Roshi didn't tell you?" said Tien. "It was decided by the first Ki practitioner, that since they initiated so much change they would be open to assassination. The easiest was the hack of surface area and energy concentration. So, the Ki practitioners came together with witches to cast a spell that would put a mental barrier around the world, one that would ensure no one thought about the specifics of how we might be dealt with."

"The same sort of spell that that's been keeping Piccolo hidden," I said. "But the only powerful witch that's still alive is Baba. Does this mean Piccolo and Baba have been working together?"

"Or is it Kami and Baba?" said Chiaotzu. "If Piccolo dies then he dies. He's got a great incentive to ensure that Piccolo stops being chased. The question is, what happens now that its magic would be waning? Piccolo might lash out."

"He said he wouldn't," I said. "The Earth's in threat. He won't be able to take over this place if a much stronger race comes and levels it. But then, he could just leave. Kami and Piccolo are aliens too, apparently, _Namekians._ "

"The Guardian of Earth, an alien," said Tien. "That's worrying."

"That's surprisingly xenophobic of you," I said.

Tien shook his head. "That's not it. Kami and Piccolo are refugees, which means that it's likely the reason they're here in the first place is because something happened to their planet. It's possible that they're the last of their species and if that's the case, then, when it comes down to it, Kami might work for Piccolo's benefit while sacrificing some of the more abundant humans."

"It's certainly in the realm of possibility," said Chiaotzu. "But it goes against what we know of Kami. He helped in the war against the Demon King Piccolo." I nodded, looking at Tien.

He shrugged. "Maybe all of this just has me on edge," he said.

"It's that wariness that'll save us," I said. "It's worth investigating at least. I'll ask Master Roshi to talk to Baba, get information on the spell that's cloaking Piccolo. I'll also have to put in some research, things that might point us to Piccolo killing innocents in the three years of his silence. But I doubt there's anything there. Goku's been watching him.

"But that's not the full reason I'm here. We have work to do. The army is currently working to bolstering their force, in raw numbers and the tech involved to defeat whatever armada might be coming our way. Bulma'll no doubt be using the information I gave her to form tech that might work to killing a Ki practitioner. We have to do the same, increasing the amount of Ki practitioners alive in the world."

"Another risk," said Chiaotzu. "Humanity has been destroyed once before by too large a concentration of Ki practitioners."

"That's something we'll have to look out for in the long term," I said. "But we don't have long term. At least…I think I might have something. Stretching the amount of time that we have. Something Goku mentioned. In the meantime, will you start gathering potentials?"

Tien nodded. "I'll call Yamcha so we can get on that," he said. "Chiaotzu?"

Chiaotzu nodded, though both didn't go into what he was exactly worth doing that no doubt they'd discussed telepathically.

888

All at once it was as though a wall that had been built around his mind was broken, and from within there was a rush of information he hadn't ever thought to _think._

"You bastard," he muttered to himself as he flew, the wind rushing past him and the scenery below almost fluid in appearance.

The demon…no, Namekian, pulled energy and fortified his body, countering the forward momentum to come to a sudden stop. He looked around until he got his bearings and then he flew, pulling more energy so that his body was stronger and he could fly faster.

He passed over cities and towns and villages, long stretches of desolate land and even larger stretches of ocean before day turned to night, the weather getting closer and the air filled with a tingle of electricity from the ever-present storm of Yunzabit Heights.

As though his mind had always been hungry for the information, it came to the fore, the layout of the land of the massive island; as the island came closer Piccolo reoriented himself, choosing the path and heading for a mountainous region before he saw it.

It should have been white but it wasn't, instead it was green with moss, it's legs long and spindly. He flew down, landing just under the ship and, screaming above the wind, said, "Open," in the old tongue.

A slot detached itself, dropping down and forcing him to fly to the side. Piccolo stepped on it and said, "Close."

Too fast the slot jumped up and the weather changed around him. Instead of wind he was in a tepid environment. There was a shudder and then a hum, lights coming on around him. The room he stood in was small, not something that he could comfortably live in. There was another his as slots in the wall popped open, small nozzles extending and a green, syrupy liquid spraying.

Piccolo didn't move, letting the liquid spray over him. Ten minutes in total passed before the slots closed and other opened, this time the liquid had the consistency of water though it dried faster than normal water should.

The process done, a section of the wall hissed as it slid back, leading to a short hall with doors at either side and staircase leading up.

The Namekian roved through: Three rooms at the bottom, one of the with the feel of a library, the other a storage room and the last bare. Piccolo closed the doors and moved up the staircase, finding himself in the cockpit.

"Systems on," he said. There was another hum as light flooded, various projections appearing and showing streams of data that Piccolo couldn't entirely understand.

"Ship," he said. "Plot the course to Namek."

The most central display showed a ream of data before it stopped, finally showing the destination in the known universe and the amount of time that it would take for the ship to reach Namek.

"Well, you're a bit far from home, aren't you?" Raditz had said. "Why you're here doesn't matter much to me. But Vegeta will be interested at least. A way to get your stupid race of your asses and finally do something about the scourge. Lazy bums."

The words had resonated to Piccolo, how he used the present tense instead of past. He'd wanted more than anything to smile at the thought that his people were alive, that he could leave this planet with its wars and strife, returning to a much simpler life.

It had also helped that this moment had been punctuated by the disappearance of a strong voice that had been ringing at the back of his head, telling him to conquer this world, to raze it to the ground and the rebuild it as his home.

Instead now there was another path. But first.

He pushed his mind outwards, beyond itself into the Astral Plane, the psychic dimension. Relative to his position, the Astral Plane was near empty, with only a few shining spots denoting the species of animals which called Yunzabit Heights their home; with how limited his telepathic range was, Piccolo could only see a small patch of the Astral Plane, though that didn't matter given what he was going to do.

He and Kami shared the strongest of bonds any living person could share, and that bond ensure that the two of them could always communicate in the Astral Plane. Piccolo reached down to the chain wound around his waist and tugged; the thing glowed a bright red as energy flowed through it, then Kami appeared.

"Counterpart," said Piccolo.

"Piccolo," the god returned. "It's strange to have been contacted through our psychic link. It makes me think that something dire has occurred."

"I found out that you magically bound my mind," said Piccolo, shrugging at the words. "I suppose you could say that."

Kami let out a long sigh. "The invader said something, didn't he?" Kami muttered. "You found the ship."

"We're an alien," said Piccolo. "We left our home world. That's all information that you hid from me."

"To protect you and the Earth," said Kami. "The difference between you and the original Piccolo, is that he knew where we came from, which is the reason that he could destroy under the premise of creating a new Namek. I had thought, that King Piccolo's pre-programming might have less of a hold if you thought of this as your home. And it has."

"If you mean constantly roaming this world with the sense that something is wrong," said Piccolo, his voice of restrained anger. "That I have to rebuild it but not knowing what _to_ rebuild has made me question my existence over and over."

"It's only in questioning one's existence that we can become who we're truly meant to be," said Kami. "King Piccolo sought to gain immortality through you. But the technique he perverted was never geared towards that, and instead he pushed ideas on who you were supposed to be.

"The task I gave you is harder. One I've seen countless humans battle with throughout their entire lifetimes and die on the other end having not found who they're supposed to be, their purpose in this life. But those who do find their purpose, are all the better for it."

Piccolo let out a long sigh and then he shook his head. "That's become irrelevant," he said. "Our people still live. At least enough that they're a presence in the greater universe."

"That's impossible," said Kami. "I remember the storm, it came too swiftly and suddenly for action to be taken. The homes that had personal ships were few and far between and it was all I could do to even make my way here before they got too fierce to leave."

Piccolo shrugged. "I don't know about all that," he said. "But I know that I'm going back. I want to be amongst others of our race. I want to be away from the humans and their complicated lives. I want peace."

"The Earth's in crisis," said Kami. "Piccolo, your home needs you."

"This is not my home!" Piccolo took a breath. "This is not my home. I'm a refugee here. I don't fit in. But there…"

"You'd still be an outcast," said Kami. "The technique I did to split myself and King Piccolo apart is forbidden. It is something that would not be overlooked by our species. You would be treated as a lesser creature."

"Which is why I called you," said Piccolo. "Let us merge and do away with this planet. You must miss our home as much as I do, perhaps more so in your case because you actually remember it."

"I cannot leave the Earth in crisis," Kami said, head shaking.

"Nor can you actually help. You're old and you're weak. You wouldn't be able to hold your own against the weakest of Goku's friends much less the coming threat. You are not needed here. Even now the humans are already moving and to fight against the coming invasion."

"I know," said Kami. "I have seen. But their efforts will be futile because they can't reach the power needed to overcome the coming threat." Kami let out a long sigh. "We are short on time. When your attack landed the Saiyan, Raditz, I peeked into his mind and felt as he condensed information, sending it outwards. The others know he has been defeated and will be making their way here for the dragon balls."

"Isn't it better, then, that we not be here in the first place?" said Piccolo. "In that way, they won't have the power that having access to the dragon balls will grant."

"You know that won't be the case," said Kami. "They will destroy this world. I cannot live with that in my conscious, which is why I have a proposal." Kami took a breath, looking older when he let it out. "I will merge with you today, giving you full control of our body if you do two things: Stay on the Earth for two years before going home."

Piccolo was quiet for a moment, considering before he said, "What's the other?"

"That you kill Goku," said Kami. "I've already set things up. You'll understand when you've fully incorporated the memories."

"Fine," said Piccolo. "I'll do it."

"Then come to the Lookout," said Kami. "Focus on it and you'll find you know where it is. Now, I have to go and speak to my successor."

And with that, Kami disappeared.

888

"We've got a year and six months," said Bulma.

"How do you know that," I asked.

"This," she said, pulling out the device Raditz had been wearing. "It's some sort of energy scanner with a neural interface. The moment I put it on it changed its functions so that I could use it. I looked through its logs and there was a cache of information sent from the scanner to the ship. I spoke with the military so we could work together on this and they let me look through the ship's logs. The information was a recording of everything that was said during Raditz's arrival on Earth.

"Calculations from the ship say that it'll take six months for the information to reach the other side and, going by the time it took for Raditz to reach Earth, it'll take a year for his reinforcements to arrive. That's the amount of time we have before we have an invasion on our hands."

I let out a long breath. "I might have a way of stretching the amount of time we have," I told her. "Something Goku told me. How I could get stronger only Kami wouldn't let that me since it wasn't serious enough. I think this qualifies."

"Do you have specifics?" she asked.

I shook my head. "I was supposed to talk to him yesterday but I spent much of the day going through Piccolo's history. Tien and Chiaotzu opened my eyes up to the possibility that Kami might have Piccolo's best interest above that of humanity."

"What did you find?"

"That our fears were unfounded," I said. "Piccolo's spent most of his time just roaming. The magic that's been clouding everyone is starting to fade and it was easier getting information, for that matter I think Piccolo might be in for some trouble if the spells aren't reapplied. Anyway, I was going to talk to Kami today before you called me over."

"Let me not hold you, then," said Bulma. "There's a race going on to find Goku's pod ship. The military knows that Capsule Corp is much better at this sort of tech and we'll be the first to have a working ship. They want to control that."

"A lot of work, then?"

Bulma nodded. "Be seeing you?"

I nodded and then moved, getting out of the compound and pointing towards the Lookout. It took a few hours before I could see the large building hanging in the air and within I could feel three distinct wells of power. Flying higher I saw Tien and Chiaotzu, the latter of which was wearing robes that looked similar to Kami's, and Piccolo, Kami and Mr Popo.

As I watched, Kami took a step forward and into Piccolo, and then felt as Piccolo's well stretched, filling with energy and quickly exceeding Raditz's well. The process was over quickly and when it was done, Piccolo stood alone where he and Kami had been before.

"What's going on? What just happened?" I said as I landed. "What happened to Kami?"

"I'm the new Kami now," said Chiaotzu. "My predecessor thought this was the best chance we had at victory and feeling Piccolo's well, I see he wasn't wrong."

"But this much power, in _his_ hands?" I said. I scowled in Piccolo's direction. He didn't seem to be paying us any attention, only looking down at his hands and clenching them at intervals. "Can we even trust him?"

"You can trust that I don't want the Earth destroyed," said Piccolo. "Which is why this needs to be done."

At the words, I was already pulling in power and pushing myself back. Piccolo was faster and was immediately behind me; I pushed energy through my body, bracing for the impact. It landed, a sharp hit to my neck and sapping a large amount of my reserves; I twisted, already kicking but Piccolo surged back, landing and jumping back as a flood of light slammed into where he'd just been standing.

The attack had come from Tien, who was standing with his hands holding a triangle in front of him.

"Tri—" Tien started only for a psionic punch to land, the arm extending from Chiaotzu. "Chiaotzu, what—"

I didn't listen, being forced to jump to the side as Piccolo tried to hit me again. I landed in a roll and quickly came to my feet, energy flooding into my hands; Piccolo appeared in front of me before I could release the ball of energy, grabbing at my neck.

The world became darkness.

 _ **Wake up.**_

I jerked awake at the command, seeing Chiaotzu and Mr Popo standing over me. I felt rested and alive, with my well fully restored. I'd used a lot of energy between my flight to the Lookout and my small defence against Piccolo, that they had fully regenerated meant I'd been unconscious for a day in the least.

I pulled energy into my body and pushed myself back, coming to a stand and in a fighting stance. Chiaotzu, using his telekinetic ability to keep himself in flight, pushed himself back, the barriers around him getting thicker and syrupy; Mr Popo had moved a little, putting himself slightly in front of Chiaotzu.

"You let Piccolo attack me," I said, anger lacing my tone. "You stopped Tien. Why?"

"Because it was needed," said Chiaotzu, his voice cold. "Come with me into the Astral Plane and my predecessor will tell you everything."

"Kami? But he merged with Piccolo," I said. "What the hell is going on?"

"Enter the Astral Plane and you'll find out everything," said Chiaotzu. "There's an information cache there. I think he'll let you hear what he has to say."

I shook my head. "I can't. I'm not that good at telepathy that I can traverse the Astral Plane," I told him. "The best I can do is mount a defence, that's all."

"I can guide you in there," he said.

Again, I shook my head. "I don't think I can trust you with that. Not without knowing what's happened since Piccolo knocked me out. Or _why_ he knocked me out in the first place."

Chiaotzu let out a sigh. "Then this becomes a lot more complicated," said Chiaotzu. "Because when I tell you, emotion will no doubt cloud you from hearing the next steps in the plan. But, at any rate, it must be done, this must be said. Goku and Tien are dead. Piccolo killed the former and I, the latter."

Anger filled me and I moved forward with a roar, power condensing in my fist. Mr Popo took a step forward and grabbed my fist, instantly the energy held within disappearing. Mr Popo turned too fast, his leg extending and then he kicked; it was too much power and I hadn't braced for it. I was pushed back and slammed into the other side of the room.

Pain erupted but fought through it, quickly getting to my feet and pulling in more energy.

"Why!" I said, my voice a roar, and energy running off me in waves. My hands clenched and I could hear slight crackling come from them. Chiaotzu's psionic barrier had only gotten thicker.

"Because we need power, assured power," said Chiaotzu, his voice still calm, "and this is a good way of getting it. Goku and Tien are great warriors, enough that they were accepted into the North Kai's training realms. Through him we'll have access to new techniques that may help us in fighting the coming threat.

"Kami's plan was that only Goku would be killed, but having read your mind I know the timeline we're working with. In six months Tien will be wished back to life, after which, in a year, we'll wish back Goku. Between that and the Time Chamber, we should be able to amass enough force to stop the initial wave, Frieza will be another story."

"The Time Chamber?"

Chiaotzu sighed. "This would be so much faster in the Astral Plane," he said. "Come on, Krillin. We're friends. I would never hurt you. Even Tien I killed with his permission. I'm not going to hurt you now."

"I just don't get why you felt the need to let Piccolo knock me out," I said. "If Goku wasn't willing to die then I was going to accept that. There's something more isn't there?"

Chiaotzu shifted a little and that was answer enough. "What did you do? What did Piccolo, do?"

"He took Gohan from Chi-Chi," said Chiaotzu.

The first impulse was to be angry and then I remembered that even if I flew out of here to go and Gohan back, I wouldn't be powerful enough to take him away from Piccolo. Which meant I had to be powerful in order to make sure that my godson wasn't hurt by that monster.

"Take me to the Time Chamber," I said, a scowl directed at Chiaotzu. "Now."

He nodded. "Hopefully you'll spend the year there. There's magic around the room that makes sure you can only enter the room three times in a lifetime. If you don't finish the full year then you'll have wasted your first attempt into the room. Reconsider this. My predecessor found that it's easier to go through the full year when a person isn't there alone."

"Then call Yamcha," I said. "But make it quick. In the next ten minutes, I'm going into the room."

Chiaotzu gave a nod. "Mr Popo, go and retrieve Yamcha, and lead them to the room. I'll be in the Throne Room, with the Sight I'm hoping I'll be able to see whatever the Gero Foundation's hiding."

In a matter of a few minutes Yamcha and I were in the room and all I could think was, _big._


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"Wolf Fang Fist!"

The words were said and all at one I was on the defensive; a red syrupy substance appeared around Yamcha's hands, reforming so that if formed claws, then he stepped forward through the air, slashing and forcing me to dodge. It was too slow and the claw ran over my skin, parting it and causing a lance of pain to run through me.

As quickly as I could, though not quickly enough, I offloaded the pain into a mental projection who I pushed off into my perimeter of the Astral Pain. My range wasn't large yet, but it was enough that I could off load a few avatars before they overlapped and returned my pain.

I tried to focus enough that I could dodge but Yamcha was moving too fast, one motion blending into the other in an unpredictable fashion. Each motion causing cuts to appear and more pain to flood through my system.

This was Yamcha's ultimate attack, flooding his system with Ki so that he was fast enough that he could even outmatch _me,_ who had more energy to burn than he. I did my best to protect myself but I didn't push too much energy into defence, instead letting the attack run its course.

And when it did, Yamcha pausing for a millisecond to catch his breath, I moved on the offensive; a punch that Yamcha tried to parry but he was too slow. The punch landed and he was forced back; he landed on the ground, choosing his stance while I hurtled forward. I punched and he parried, trying to get in a punch but I wove to the side, extending a leg and hitting him in the side.

He slid pack, pulling energy from his well and forcing himself to stop. His eyes glowed a bright red and I hissed as I felt one of my pain avatars disappear and the pain flooding back with more intensity. He was better than me at fighting on the Astral Plane which meant I had to ensure he fought _here._

Energy flooded into my hands and I pushed it forward.

The salvo left and Yamcha was forced into the air, weaving to dodge the beams; pushing himself further and all at once coming closer, in those moments that he was close my concentration waned as more pain lanced through: An attack on the Astral Plane.

A glancing hit and Yamcha was sent spinning through the air. He quickly caught himself but a cluster of energy balls were already on him. Yamcha screamed, letting loose a concussive wave that detonated my energy balls before they could land.

"Kamehameha!" I said, not even charging the attack enough. The ball of blue light flooded forward and Yamcha, too expanded from the concussive wave, couldn't dodge. The ball hit and he was forced into the ground, at a mental command a semi-large detonation occurred; Yamcha's energy well dropped to well into near nil as he expanded energy to protect himself.

This was over.

I landed and then immediately regretted it because I felt a splitting pain in my head. I stumbled back when my body immediately stopped, not moving. I focused, pushing my mind outward and into the Astral Plane; Yamcha was there, much larger than me with threads of red flowing from his fingers into my head.

With a bellow, I sent out a psychic pulse that snapped off the psychic threads. I pointed a hand and focused, shooting out shafts of psychic force; Yamcha flew back and immediately out of my range, but I wasn't out of his. Thick chains flew in from the darkness and I had to weave out of the way, landing and then forming avatars with the sole command to form telepathic shields.

It worked, thick panes of blue-green glass appeared and they stopped most of the barrage of chains; giant hands appeared from the darkness and they slammed into my shields, strain causing cracks to run themselves all through the shield.

Yamcha had more footing than me in the Astral Plane, his range was bigger and he understood how this dimension worked on an intrinsic level, making his attacks more powerful even if they were unrealistic, while the counter wasn't true for me. If I wanted my attacks to be powerful, they had to be rooted in reality.

I got into my stance and said, "Kamehameha!"

The blue light flashed outwards, straight to where Yamcha should be but all at once the hands disappeared, the hands appearing on the opposite direction. I whirled around, preparing for another Turtle Wave but Yamcha was faster, his hands slamming into shields and shattering them.

The four avatars disappeared.

The hands entered my range and pinned me down. I tried fighting back, pulling in power but that wasn't how things worked here. Yamcha was too powerful, it had been a mistake to fight this out _here_ in the first place.

"I win," said Yamcha, appearing close to my range. I gaped because the large thing was an avatar, not the real him. "Without your mind held in this place your body can't act."

I nodded. "Something to work on. What do you think?"

The arms disappeared and I stood. "Just form avatars to handle the fights in the Astral Plane," he said. "When Chiaotzu was teaching me telepathy he said I should make a lot of if functions. Off-loading consciousness is hard, so the next best thing is telling your avatars what to do in a variety of ways. Like defence."

He formed an avatar.

"If attack, form shield," said Yamcha. "Attack it."

I pointed a hand and the clone formed a shaft of red light to protect itself.

"You can spread it out so that the commands are distinct."

I nodded. "I'll work on it," I told him, "and you should work the after effect the Wolf Fang Fist. You take a breath and that leaves an opening. One I've been using for the last month."

"Back to training?" said Yamcha.

"For me, sure," I said. "You. I don't think you have the reserves."

888

"They've been in there for half a day," said Piccolo. "They might actually pull through."

Chiaotzu gave a nod. "Krillin works best if he's driven by emotion," he said. "Yamcha is more driven if he's being forced into action. The former will help the latter. But when Krillin comes out, he'll be pissed, at both of us."

"The Earth has to be protected," said Piccolo.

"Speaking of which. I need a favour. I need you to attack a Gero Foundation base in the North Capitol. He's got a weapon there that he's testing out. I believe that it would be better tested against a combatant. It'll help if Capsule Corps sees it too, they might get ideas on a better design."

"I'd need something in return," said Piccolo.

Chiaotzu frowned. "What?"

"Six months without you _looking_ at me."

Chiaotzu let out a long sigh. "Will it help in the long term?"

"I believe so. It will push the Earth towards action. It will quell an feuds between the natives."

"Then do it," said Chiaotzu and he felt horrible because he could feel the direction Piccolo would take. Nothing would bring the Earth together faster than a tangible threat.

Piccolo gave a nod and then flew into the air, moving towards the North Capitol. Chiaotzu didn't watch.

888

"Well damn," said Tien as he stood in the air, looking over Snake Way and seeing how the beast wound. "I didn't think it would be this long."

Goku grinned, stretching before he said, "Race you there?"

Tien couldn't help but mirror it.

888

"I don't understand," said Bulma and do as she might, she couldn't hold back the slight quiver in her voice.

"You do," said Piccolo, standing tall with a cold expression on him. "You understand more than anyone else that this has to be done."

"But you'll be killing people," said Bulma. "If I worked with you I would be condoning that."

"My actions are my own," said Piccolo. "For the first time in my three years alive. You can't decide what I'm going to do, you can't stop what I'm going to do, it makes the most amount of sense that you make the most of what's going to occur."

"But—"

"Listen, Bulma. You have considerable scientific knowledge and you're one of the few people on this Earth that I think is worth trusting. If there's anyone who can understand the tech involved in building my ship and maybe fixing any bugs the past few centuries would have caused, it's you."

"And my get away from this is?" said Bulma. "You'll still be destroying portions of the Earth. That's what I would want the most."

"You get to learn about a different form of space travel," said Piccolo, "and I get to teach you how to access the Astral Plane. How it works, I feel, will make a few things make sense."

"The Astral Plane?"

"The telepathic realm," he said. "Every mind overlaps with it. It's the place a telepathic practitioner uses when they want to reach the thoughts of other, infiltrate their minds, that sort of thing. It's also the place a witch has to interact with if they want to cast a spell so that an idea isn't thought about."

Piccolo took a step forward and Bulma recoiled. Piccolo didn't heed this, instead making his arm lengthen so he could grab Bulma's shoulder. The woman's breath caught but she didn't have time to feel fear, instead she felt awe at the world around her.

Instead of a standing in her office she was now standing in a barren wasteland with a red tinge colouring it all, and within there was only the sight of people and other Piccolos who had threads of green running from their fingers, connecting to the people.

"It's how I'm stopping them," said Piccolo. "Avatars placed through your building and sending the impulse for them to _freeze._ They're set to disappear within fifteen minutes. Seven now."

"This is…Wait, who's the other person?" she asked as she noticed for the first time that there was someone else there; a woman dressed in black, dark hair and skin, with shinning with threads moving from her fingers into the head of an employee.

"A week spell," said Piccolo.

All at once the world came back.

"Do you accept?"

"Do I have a choice? You could command it of me," she said.

Piccolo shook his head. "You wouldn't do your best work, then," he said. "It's better this way."

Bulma let out a long sigh before she nodded. "I'll do this. Even though it goes against every fibre of my being."

888

I stood at the centremost point in my range in the Astral Plane, around me a hodgepodge of beams that held my makeshift shelter. After nine months of trying and failing to fight against Yamcha, a self-described average telepathic combatant, I'd turned more _defence._

In the long run, it meant that I wouldn't be able to turn my mind outwards to read others' minds, but I didn't mind. I didn't have the stomach for telepathy as the others. But I could what I had to my best benefit.

A bit of focus and I formed an avatar, a facsimile of my person; another bit of focus and pieces of blue green thread stretching from my fingers, moving through the air until they connected to my avatar's head. The basic functions that Yamcha had taught me were: If, action; then, action; if not, then.

I used that here to test something.

 _If: Hear 'Wolf Fang Fist'; then: Form telekinetic barrier._

I detached the threads and stood back, watching the avatar. It didn't look any different but that wasn't how this worked. I pushed an image and a television set appeared just in front of me, showing a black screen, then speakers appeared at either side, connected to the television.

I pulled back and out of the Astral Plane. I was in the House, a room that had a myriad of clocks on it. I moved out of the building, pulling in energy and pushing it throughout my body so that it compensated for the increased strain because of the warped gravity of the Lookout. Yamcha was in the air, trading of a flurry of red colour swipes against an invisible clone.

His projection was larger than it had been when we'd started, which meant there was more bite behind his technique. I was a little worried though that we hadn't used the time as best we could. Sure, our reserves had grown, but we hadn't really developed new techniques that would catch Piccolo off guard, instead refining those we already had.

But coming up with a new technique was a laborious process.

"Hey!" I shouted. "I need to test something out! Mind giving me a hand?"

Yamcha stopped his attack. "Sure!" he said, coming closer and landed. "What do you need?"

"Attack me with the Wolf Fang Fist, I think I might have a defence against it," I told him, "and if I do, then maybe I can stretch it out to other telekinetic attacks."

 _Chiaotzu's in particular,_ I couldn't help but think.

"Okay," said Yamcha and he took the appropriate stance. "Wolf Fang Fist!"

Almost immediately a syrupy barrier formed around my skin. Yamcha swiped and his extended claws cut through my barriers as though they were nothing. Another swipe and against, my skin parted but my avatars took the brunt of the pain almost immediately; I'd learned enough that I could settle into a rhythm and push myself out of the way of the swipes and kicks, but I'd trusted that my shields would hold up.

I pushed my mind until I saw where he would hit and dodged, getting out of the way until the technique ran its course.

"Your barrier is too thin," said Yamcha. "You haven't been working on it consistently enough that it'll be able to consistently cover your entire body."

"Easy counter, focusing my barrier into one place," I said. "But that means I'll have to know where my technique is going to hit or have a wide array of if functions and that might slow down the reaction time of the avatar."

"That's always the trade off," said Yamcha. "Instantaneous response that doesn't do much or a delayed response that does what you want. Or you could make it broad as hell, the range I mean. Make it so that if it sees where a punch is going then it'll bring up a barrier there. But then you'd have to spend hours giving it copies of your memories."

I sighed. "I guess I have no other choice," I said. "But at least I know it works. In the remaining three months, I could spend my time just working on my telekinesis and broadening what my avatars can do."

888

A deal had been struck and Dr Gero had been lucky enough to already have a working deal with the government that he was allowed time to look at it. The device was simple: An ear device that had small suction cups at the rim and a glass lens that would go over the eye.

A scouter that provided energy readings only from people.

"That shouldn't be," mutter Dr Gero as his mind ran over it all, what he'd seen. "And yet it was."

It was a new aspect to the world that he hadn't known before.

Everyone had these massive reserves of energy and, more than anything, the just automatically refilled at a consistent rate. He'd watched for hours as energy was expanded and then refilled, even asked the unknowing test subjects not to eat to see if this was connected to the amount of food they ate.

But it wasn't. Indeed, it looked like they could magically replenish energy from nothing.

It made sense the more he thought about, that something like this existed, especially when he looked at the feats that had been pulled off by beings such as Son Goku and the Demon King. But why hadn't he thought about it now? What hadn't he thought to ask the right questions?

"Thirteen," he said looking up at the android who sat on the other side of the office, strapped to a series of wires that ensure he was watching the feeds from the drones Dr Gero had set throughout the world. "I need you to investigate something for me. Mental manipulation in all its forms, even if its connected to myth."

There had to be something wrong with himself if, for so long, he'd just never thought to ask. That, after all, was what science was about; knowing of a scientific law and then finding the explanation to that law.

And yet he'd never thought to ask.

"Found something," said Thirteen, his voice a drawl of a now lost accent. An affectation he'd loved when he'd first integrated it, but now he didn't find the use. It made Thirteen conspicuous.

Dr Gero looked down, pushing his mind towards thinking about the—

"Boss," said Thirteen, breaking his stream of thought.

"Yes?" said the Doctor, feeling slightly annoyed that he was being interrupted. He only had a set amount of time with the scanner and should have been using this moment to focus entirely on it. He already had ideas about how he might incorporate the functions to future iterations of the androids, if he just figured out to rebuild the thing.

" _Boss,"_ said Thirteen, his voice insistent. Dr Gero looked at him.

"What?" he snapped.

"You're compromised," Thirteen said. "Priority Alpha." The Doctor felt his heart shudder. "I might have a work around, information that's been acquired from Capsule Corp. But it will take a week in the least before you can work past it."

 _Less time to work on the scouter,_ he thought but did not say aloud. Priority Alpha meant there was something very wrong, a gas in the air that made him suggestible or manipulation of another sort. By his own commandments, the androids had right to force him out of an action, disregarding his commands if they suspected a priority alpha.

"Then let's get started immediately," he said. "Fourteen,"

The large android stepped forward, his skin alabaster pale and his expression stoic. "I need you to work through decoding the programming on this thing. It'll help us find a way to start the Saiyan's ship without it."

Fourteen said nothing, but the task would be done.

888

All at once the oppressive quality to the very air stilled. I stopped the punch I'd been throwing and looked quizzically at Yamcha.

"Maybe the year's ended," he said. "It was close to it the last time I looked at the clocks."

It wasn't a moment later that Mr Popo stepped into sight. "Your year has ended," he said. "I've been asked to retrieve you by Kami."

"Senzu beans then Piccolo?" I said. Yamcha nodded and we moved, escorted by Mr Popo through the Lookout and outside. Chiaotzu was there, looking toward the horizon and he didn't look in our direction as we exited.

As we flew, I peeked into the Astral Plane and the sight that I saw shook me: It was a castle large enough that it almost overlapped with my own piece of land in the Astral Plane, and framing the castle were two giant Chiaotzus who scanned the perimeter, shafts of light illuminating spots so far, I couldn't see.

I pulled back, jumping off the Lookout and stopping when we were at Korin's Tower. He gave us one Senzu Bean each and with that our bodies were as healed as they were going to be, our energy reserves filled out to capacity.

"You know," said Yamcha as we started flying towards West City. It was so liberating being in the relatively lower gravity of Earth, it meant I could fly faster without expanding too much of my reserves. "Asking Chiaotzu would have been so much faster."

"Would he have told us?" I said. "He didn't seem to mind that Piccolo had taken Gohan in the first place."

"Or he knew that he wasn't strong enough to build Piccolo and set this up," said Yamcha. "I know I've enabled this the past year, but I don't think you've even for a second looked at this from Chiaotzu's point of view. He's got to protect the entirety of the Earth, which means that one of the stronger people that we have shouldn't be outcaste."

"Even at the expense of a child?" I asked and I couldn't hold back the anger and frustration. I knew that the task in front of us was almost insurmountable, but that we'd lose ourselves in the process?

Yamcha shrugged. "I'm not the one whose has the entirety of humanity to look after. Just…don't be too pissed at him until you understand all of this. The deals he's put in place. If I know Chiaotzu, then certainly he's made sure that Gohan isn't hurt by all this."

"Maybe," I said. "Let's just help Gohan. Show Piccolo that he isn't the most powerful anymore and that we'll be there to keep him in check."

Yamcha nodded.

We flew for a few moments before the West Capitol appeared in front of us, with the centremost building being the large mound of Capsule Corp. We headed down, moving through checkpoints before we could see Bulma.

"Krillin," she said. "You look…different. Your hair's grown. How?"

"I've been training to get back Gohan for the last year," I told her. "Speaking of which. I need you to gear your satellites towards find him and Piccolo."

"Gohan and Piccolo? What?" Bulma shook her head. "If that had happened I'm sure Chi-Chi would have contacted me. Not to mention that I spoke to Piccolo about six hours ago. He didn't mention anything about Gohan but…" Bulma let out a long sigh.

"What he did mention was worrying," she said. "He said he'd start attacking the world. Choosing a random location every two months and doing as much damage as he can."

"What? Why?" asked Yamcha.

"Because he wants to test Earth's defences," she said. "He said that if Earth was going to survive a full scale invasion, then everyone needs to be working together. He's going to force that by giving us a common, tangible enemy. Himself."

My stomach twisted, but I looked at Yamcha, thinking about what he'd said about Chiaotzu. Was the same being said for Piccolo? Did my biases mean I couldn't see some merit in Piccolo's ideas?

"Do you think it's going to work?" I asked Bulma. "What he's doing?"

Bulma let out a shrug. "Thinking about this as coldly as I can, there's a merit there. People don't often come together unless we have a common enemy. We saw how easily all the Lords came together, pushing money into the military when it came to reacting to the Demon King Piccolo. But that sort of reaction hasn't been spurred on by the knowledge that we're going to be invaded in a year and a half.

"But there's the greater problem that what Piccolo will be doing isn't as simple as he thinks it is. It'll spur on innovation, sure, but it will lead to a greater sense of hopelessness which is about the worst thing that we can experience. It'll make people unwilling to act when the true threat comes. I don't think Piccolo understands human psychology enough that he thought through all this.

"Also, he'll be destroying a lot of things. There's only so much money can be pushed into all of this and it has to come from somewhere. The industries that might evolve will be different but there'll be a little lag as everyone tries to assimilate to the new reality. We're too short on time for his plan to work. Maybe if we had at least twenty then it would be something worth doing. But…" She shook her head.

"If it's not going to work then we have to convince Piccolo otherwise," said Yamcha. "He talked to you, Bulma, which means he might be willing to talk to us. Maybe merging with Kami changed him."

Bulma shook her head. "I tried telling him all this," she said. "After some time…We're working on something together and he was here twice. He said that it was the only way that he could prepare humanity in the long run. Showing them their weakness."

"Fuck," muttered Yamcha.

I couldn't help but internal mirror the sentiment. "We can't kill him," I said. "Because Tien and Goku are dead. It's not like when Kami still existed and we could lock him in a vase, because this time he might take the dragon balls with him. There doesn't really seem like there's much we can do."

Was this how Chiaotzu felt when he thought it through? Seeing that there wasn't really anything he could do in the grand scheme and just choosing to minimise the damage? How could _we_ minimise the damage that would follow after this?

I looked at Yamcha. "With Tien gone, our recruiter's gone too," I said to him. "We'll have to reach out and start training people. Piccolo's first attack will be two months from now. It'll help the morale aspect if the Earth knows that there are people fighting back. That it's possible _to_ fight back."

Yamcha gave a nod and the both of us set off in separate directions.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Wells of energy were all around him, and yet it meant nothing because all he could focus on were the three large wells that were up in the air, moving too quickly for him to _see_ much less coherently follow.

Ben took in a long breath, conceptualising all the fear in his mind into a ball; with the breath out, he cast the ball outwards, not too far, because there was the chance that he might hit an _innocent_ with the ball of fear and the unlikely risk that he might cause a heart-attack.

It worked, the fear subsided but just as quickly he could feel a new fear starting to bubble up. Kami had said, during their telepathic training, that emotion was better off-loaded into a copy in the Astral Plane rather than sending it away; but Ben, it had been proved in the last two months, was not an adept when it came to manipulations in the Astral Plane. He hadn't yet get to the point where he could push himself in.

But he would learn. He would be like Kami and the Masters, powerful enough that he might be able to stand up to the Demon King if it were needed. Not now, though, because now he knew the Masters had been right in when they'd told them that they wouldn't be fighting the Demon King, instead they would handle the city below.

There was a crash and they there were within sight: The Demon King, tall and green, and Master Krillin, shorter and wearing orange, hair tied in a wolf knot and his face uncharacteristically stern as he moved. The Demon King swiped and Master Krillin shot back, gaining distance before he punched; a blue-green syrupy membraned shot out and wrapped around the Demon King, but he was quick to disentangle himself.

The Master must have known this would be the case, because the split second was enough that he was able to drive forward again, sending a fist out that landed. The Demon King shot back and then punched, his arm stretching and clipping the Master as he tried to dodge. Master Yamcha chose that moment to appear and he was bathed in a red syrup, concentrated around his hands and shaped as claws.

"—Fist!" Ben heard and then Master Yamcha was moving too quickly for him to follow, too fast for the Demon King to follow because each time there was a swipe, there was a reaction, pain writing itself across the Demon's features.

And then it was over and the Demon King drove forward, punching and sending Master Yamcha flying back; the Master caught himself only to have to jump to the side as there was a flash of colour, an energy ball having erupted from the Demon's mouth.

 _Go!_ Ben's mind shouted as he realised that he'd just been gaping at the fight. He looked away even as he heard the fighting continued, saw the arcs of light and discharges as they moved further up into the sky but he didn't focus on any of that, instead he focused on the ball of energy that was steadily moving toward a building.

He jumped off the roof, pulling in energy from his well and pushing it towards momentum; all at once he was flying rather quickly, with the wind rushing at his and the freezing rain slapping harshly against his skin. A second in flight and he saw that he wouldn't be able to reach the energy ball and stop it in time, instead he had to change tasks; he stopped and pushed energy towards his hands, he didn't even collect it too long before his hand thrust outward and small balls of energy was flew to where the Demon's ball would be.

One of Ben's balls hit the Demon's attack and the things cause a cascade of detonations, they were too close to the building and portion of the building was blown away, wells of power suddenly disappearing as people died.

His stomach fell, his mind going silent as he stared at the damaged he'd wrought. A chunk of the building was gone, fire having erupted in places and people screaming as they tried to find a way out. He hadn't thought, instead letting instinct drive him and he'd over estimated how closely he'd lined his energy ball and their explosive potential.

Not five minutes since everything had started and there was already so much damage, a portion of it because of _him._

 _Help! Help the people!_

"Right, right," Ben muttered, balling the emotion that made him stricken and throwing it into the Astral Plane without care.

He flew forward and down, heading towards a building before he stopped, glaring at the sky and already collecting energy and sending out; his salvo was more spread out this time, but it was too far apart and he missed the ball entirely. There was another flash of light from a detonation and wells that disappeared.

He looked at the building and then up in the air where flashes of light occurred at intervals. The Demon King was trying to destroy the city and he was succeeding because there were energy balls sent raining down and only being stopped by the other members of the guard.

He looked in the direction he knew buildings had been destroyed; if he moved from his spot, choosing to save the innocents, then it was likely that more portions of the city might be destroy. Whether he wanted to or not, he had to condense this to raw numbers and choose the action that would save the highest number of people.

He landed on a building, doing his best at not watching the Gero building, instead focusing on shooting beams out of the sky before they could get too close to another building.

Five minutes passed before three sleek black jets slid through the air, missiles shooting out and forcing the three combatants to scatter; there was a scream and then two missiles detonated, there was no flickering out of any well, which meant the Master and the Demon King were still alive. The cracks of rotors filled the air and helicopters appeared, much slower and choosing a much further vantage point than the jets, while still firing missiles when the Demon King was further up in the sky.

The Demon noticed this and quickly angled the fight so that it was downward, landing in the streets and fighting it out with the Masters where only they could follow. They were far enough that they were specks on the ground, and then they were in the air between buildings with the Demon on the backfoot; then they were further up and then they were suddenly in front of Ben moving faster than he could collect himself to put distance between himself and them.

The Demon wove under a punch from Master Yamcha, pushed the man up with his body and the lunged forward at Ben; he moved to dodge but the green claws was already his neck—Master Krillin was suddenly there, his hand pushing the Demons to the side. It had been a feint to get Master Krillin near because the Demon drove a knee forward and it landed.

The Demon's hands clasped together and slammed against Master Krillin's back, sending him ploughing down and through the ceiling of the building below. The Demon glared, his eyes glowing and Ben's training kicked in. He fell to the side and rolled to his feet before driving forward, punching; the Demon King stepped to the side, getting closer and the kicking. Ben had seen it coming and he'd pulled in energy, all of it to his stomach to fortify his body, and yet it still _hurt._ He was thrown back, his energy reserves having dipped beyond anything he'd felt in such a short period.

And then he screamed as he slammed against something hard, feeling it yield and then pieces run over his skin, all of them parting it. He slammed against the ground, skidding back and slamming into something hard before he finally stopped. He tried to get up, but pain flashed at points all over his body.

It was too much too quickly, but he'd been trained. He curled all the pain into a ball and shoved it into the Astral Plane, pushing himself to his feet and looking around him. He was in an empty office building with a section of the glass that looked beyond gone.

The Demon King and the Masters were back in the air, fighting and dodging the military as though one of them hadn't just been punched through a building. All the while he was barely holding on, his well almost empty from the one kick from the Demon King.

 _The goal is beyond that,_ he thought. _Is there even a chance that we might be able to reach it?_

888

"We didn't lose anyone," said Yamcha. "At least no one in the Guard. We still couldn't help the damage that he was able to inflict on the city."

"He was holding back," I said, looking out at the Lookout. There were forty of our students stretched out on the ground, most of them sparring while others were in deep meditative trances, no doubt traversing the Astral Plane. "He fought one of the students and the kid wasn't killed by his kick."

"He is trying to better our defences," Chiaotzu said, hanging in the air, his telekinetic membrane surrounding him. "If he killed them after just two months he'd be doing a disservice to his goal of protecting the Earth."

I let out a long breath, after returning from our sabbatical in the Time Chamber, I'd traversed the Astral Plane and connected to Kami's cache of information. From there I learned the intricacies of the plan with the North Kai and the plan he'd quickly put together when Piccolo had threatened to leave the Earth, going back to Namek.

"I still don't like the way he's going about it," I said, repeating something I'd said numerous times in the past two months. Ever since the possibility that there might be other sets of dragon balls in the universe, I'd had it in mind to just do the Earth a favour and kill Piccolo, instead seeking out planet Namek's dragon balls.

But I'd been beat by circumstance. We didn't have a space-faring ship yet. The only ships we had were ones we couldn't entirely understand and Piccolo's which needed a lot of repairs, not that Bulma will have been willing to part with it.

"We can't change that," Chiaotzu quickly said. "Thankfully at least it's working. We know that the Gero Foundation's done work on their fire power and it could help us when we have to fight the Saiyans."

"Yeah," muttered Yamcha. "But I don't like how they weren't exactly particular with who they were shooting at during the fight."

"They're testing things out," said Chiaotzu and he had a scowl set. "The magic behind the whole bullet thing has waned enough that it's possible they can see it as a viable measure." He looked in my direction. "I told you something like this might happen."

"I know and I don't doubt my decision," I said. "If protecting the Earth means that I might die, I'm all for it. At least my machinations aren't putting innocent lives at risk."

Chiaotzu looked as though he'd be struck and I could see Yamcha looking between us, as though he wanted to say something but wasn't sure what. Chiaotzu took a long breath, closing his eyes before he opened them and looked at our students.

"The word of the attack is just starting to pass throughout the world," said Chiaotzu, it was better for the both of us I we stopped this before it devolved. "I think we have a day or two, leaving them reeling before we can recruit another batch."

"I'll get on that," said Yamcha. "Matter of fact, Krillin. We should be getting to Bulma's. See how she's been doing and what ideas she might have with the little peek of the Gero's tech."

I gave a nod and the both of us tore through the sky. Yamcha shot me looks at times but he didn't say anything throughout our flight. We were regulars enough that we bypassed many of the security measures in place and were quickly in Bulma's personal lab where the Namekian ship stood as the centrepiece with a myriad of people working on it.

"Guys," she said with a smile. "What do I owe the visit?" She looked a little harried, but there was an excited glint in her eyes.

"The first attack happened last night," said Yamcha. "Piccolo attacked a coastal city just north of the North Capitol."

Bulma's smile disappeared. "Anyone dead?"

"Just civilians," Yamcha said. "Some of our people got roughed up but it wasn't too bad. Anyway, the Gero Foundation showed some new tech during the clean-up, body suits that help people flying but they didn't look like they had any sort of propulsion system. Enhanced strength and I think they could manipulate the telekinetic force to a small degree."

"Of course, they can," Bulma muttered, running a hand over her face. "Clever bastards."

"Clever how?" I asked, curious even with the mix of emotions I felt whenever I thought about the people who'd died.

"Gero knows about the Astral Plane," she said. "I have a person there feeding me intel. Not pretty," she said, "but he's doing it too at Capsule Corp. It would be naïve if I didn't play the games too. Anyway, he's clever because this way he isn't interacting with magic in anyway.

"He's using alien technology as a driver to his innovation while I've been limiting myself to the Namekian ship's engine. It's like you guys in a respect, it pulls in energy from seemingly thin air; this is impossible, of course, but it isn't and it's happening and I think the particular witch that did the spell is strong enough that I can't find them on the Astral Plane much less break their work."

"You could ask Chiaotzu to break it for you," said Yamcha.

Bulma frowned and then let out a breath. "There's another spell there, too," she said. "Now that you've mentioned it my mind sees it as an avenue, but I still don't know where he is so it's…Give me a sec."

I followed and pushed myself into the Astral Plane. We were so close together that our ranges overlapped, but that I'd built physical barriers around my mind meant I couldn't see what she was doing; I focused and a window opened that gave me a view of beyond, but immediately it disappeared as my avatars moved, replacing the 'damaged' area with thicker walls.

I wouldn't be able to see and help her with my current configuration of avatars, and with how long it had taken to set them up, I wasn't willing to mess with them and risk breaking what I'd one. I pulled back and watched as she and Yamcha stood in space, distant expressions on them while they worked beyond.

"Okay this is boring," I muttered to myself and then started to look around. I didn't get too close because I could see from the twists of expression from the Capsule Corp workers, how they were angry and apprehensive and confused at my presence; the ship was several leagues larger than me, standing on thick white legs that ended at sharp points that dug into the floor.

Beyond the legs was an opened hatched and when I looked down I could see a panel on the floor. There were thick tubes running from the ground into the ship and when I looked, the tubes led off to large glass panels filled with a variety of liquids; there were another set of tubes but these were much thinner and they were connected to a series of large and bulky computers.

There was another room to the lab but it was closed off, the only point that I could see through being a thick pane of glass. Beyond was another mess of tubes, all of them littered across the room, moving through the walls and towards points I couldn't see; they were all connected to an invisible membrane on a sphere which held a spinning metallic ball with smaller marbles sized balls on it, they shone with a white light.

"Is that the engine?" I asked a woman that was looking at the glass and jotting down notes on a tablet.

She gave me a long-suffering look before she nodded.

"What are the tubes for?" I asked, ignoring that I was interrupting her. I didn't know anything about science but the engine was so different from anything I knew that it was _interesting._

"The ship can wirelessly transfer energy," the woman said. "But that function only happens when it's in the engine room. We haven't figure out why, yet, we think it might be magic but figuring it out has been…hard. We're using the… 'tubes' to keep the ship functioning.

"The panels on the end of the tube absorb the light being cast by the small balls, converting it into electricity. It runs through the tubes and is fed off into slot in the engine room's walls."

"Okay," I said. The woman stopped looking at me and then looked back down at her notes. "Why is it odd?" The woman sighed as she looked at me. "What the ship is doing? Bulma said it was pulling in power from seemingly nowhere."

The woman gave me a long look, probably aghast before she said, "It breaks how the world works. It implies that energy can be created."

"Can't it?" I asked.

"No," she said. "It cannot. Energy can only be changed from one form into another," she said. "Potential energy into kinetic into sound, heat all other forms. It's the basis to which the universe works."

"Okay," I said and then I held out a hand, pulling in energy and pushing it into a ball. "It's not exactly creation but I think it might be like the thing the engine's doing. I'm pulling energy from my well and reforming it into an energy ball; but I can feel as my well is being slowly restored. I don't know where that energy is coming from, but it might be created."

"That's…" The woman shook her head. "Okay," she said, breathing slower and closing her eyes. "Okay. Okay. The world isn't working the way I think it should be working. It's not the world that's the problem, instead it's how I view it."

She opened her eyes.

"Can you give me a moment?" she said. "I'll be right back."

I nodded and watched the spinning ball beyond. When she returned, she was wearing a very large headpiece, she tsked under her breath.

"I don't know why I didn't make the connection even sooner," she said.

She looked at the ball and I heard a beeping coming from the headpiece. She started jotting down more notes.

"It works similar to you," the woman said. "Similar to what the files say is true for the alien Raditz. Thinking on it, this is strictly a hypothesis, I think that you might be a beacon of some kind, getting in energy from another dimension."

"You too," I interrupted. She stopped to look at me. I repeated, "You too. You have a connection to this other dimension. Your well is smaller than mine, but you have a well. With a bit of training, you could be able to use that energy to do everything a Ki practitioner can."

"Which is what exactly?" she asked.

I shrugged. "Fortify your body to become stronger, faster or more resilient, create energy balls or form clones, increase brain function—though that's harder—flight and I've heard that magic is just an offshoot of the Ki Arts, and I don't think there are limits to what it can do."

"Energy into other forms of energy, probably into matter too," she said. She suddenly took in a large breath and, looking excited, said, "Why haven't I thought about this before…unless, of course." She jotted down fervently on her notes and then smiled at Krillin. "Thank you," she said. "This has helped me."

I nodded, a little off put that I didn't know _how_ I had helped, but pushed it aside. Bulma and Yamcha had returned from the Astral Plane, disturbed by the woman who'd jotted down the notes. Yamcha moved away from the two and towards me.

"It's Mr Popo's magic," he said. "He's very hard to escape. He's powerful. Noticed that some of his work is on me too while I was trying to disentangle the threads on Bulma."

I let out a long sigh.

"I'm starting to get a little tired of all the mental spells that are affecting us," I muttered. "It's holding things up. Do you think it would be a good idea if we wiped the slate clean? I'm sure Baba could manage it."

Yamcha shrugged. "I'm not good with big plans," he said. "I'll leave that to you and Chiaotzu."

"I'll look into it," I said.

888

"Kami," muttered Tien as he stared. It was a strange sight, seeing the planet. It was very much large and yet it was so small. So much so that no doubt it would be able to see the curvature of the place as he stood on the planet.

"You think we'll be able to fly up there?" asked Goku. "None of the strange magic on Snake Way?"

Tien shrugged. "Only one way to find out. Test it out?"

Goku nodded and then took a breath. He shook his head. "Nope, can't fly," he said. "Maybe we're supposed to jump."

He didn't even think twice before he bent low and then pushed himself up. He moved faster than he should have and then faster still. He couldn't stop himself and the hit the side of the planet face first.

 _Jump high enough and the effect of the planet's gravity took effect?_ he thought before he too jumped and felt the enormous amount of pull exerted by the planet.

He pulled energy to stop himself but there was just too much force pulling him and it wasn't enough. He twisted and landed feet first, feeling a twinge running through his legs but landing with much more grace than Goku. He grinned at the man who was slowly moving to find his feet with great difficulty.

"By the Kais," said a sharp voice. "I thought it would take you longer to get here. Let's begin the training. Catch the monkey," the small golden bug pointed towards a monkey.

"King Kai?" said Goku.

"No," said the bug. "Gregory. King Kai's busy. He won't train you lot until he sees you're worth the time. Now get to it."

"Fine. Fine," Tien muttered. He pulled energy, more than he should have to _move_ around, but said monkey didn't seem to be having that much trouble. "This is going take forever, isn't it," he muttered as he watched Goku moving beside him.

"Yeah," said Goku. "Just wish they'd had the decency to feed us before the training began. Two months," he said. "I don't think I've ever gone that long without eating."

"No one has," said Tien. "But these bodies don't exactly get hungry and though they tired it's not to any effect."

"Sure, that's true," said Goku, a whine in his voice. "But that doesn't mean we won't be able to taste it any. And that's all there is to it?"

Tien couldn't hold back his snort. "You actually _taste?"_ he said. "With all that breathing in, I thought your tongue was dead."

Goku shrugged. "Chi-Chi got me into it," he said. "Going out and eating at the fancy places. It's nice, though it does nothing to fill me up."

Tien opened his mouth to speak when a sharp voice said, "Enough talking. _Work_. Any slower and I'm going to release the hounds."

With a sigh, Tien pushed all his focus into chasing after the monkey lumbering in front of them.

888

"Wiping the slate clean?" said Baba.

I nodded. We were in a large and ostentatious room that overlooked Witch city below us, a sprawling city that was a mixture of nature and cityscape.

The woman, Master Roshi's sister, hung in the air, a purple shroud surrounding her and holding her aloft, turned to look at me.

"That's impossible," she said, an air of finality in her voice.

"What? Why?" I said.

"Because it would take too much time collecting energy and gearing it to that purpose," she said. "I don't know the grade of spells out there, but, in the least, three hundred years before the energy gathered is enough to break most of the spells in the world. Not to mention that that's not taking into account the grade of spell the Great Dragon, Shenron, or the Genie, Mr Popo, might cast."

I let out a sigh. "No offense," I said. "But witch's spell are really stalling our progress. Bulma's spending most of her time trying to wade past mental intrusion than actually working on whatever she's working on. I just hoped there might be a simple solution to all of this."

Baba gave me a long look before she said, "There is." I looked at her expectantly. "The dragon balls."

At that there was a flood of information, at her words avenues I'd never thought about opened. Why didn't we just use the dragon balls to solve all of our problems, with the dragon balls it was possible that we could wish away the threat of the Saiyans, avoiding the need for—

I shook my head as I was hit by a wave of confusion. I was aware that I'd been thinking in a direction, but what that direction was, was hard to tell.

Baba hummed. "It's stronger than I thought, then," she said.

"What's stronger," I said before I paused. "I'm being affected by a spell, aren't I?"

Baba nodded.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "My idea was really good, too, wasn't it?"

"It would have made things easier, yes," said Baba.

"If you heard it, why don't you push it into action?" I asked.

"Because I don't want to go against whatever defences might be in effect if I try to go against what the previous Kami wanted," she said. "I'm sure he had his reasons, or at least his people had their reasons for the restrictions. I'm wary to go against them."

"Guess I have no choice but to accept that," I muttered. "Could you at least help with Bulma and her people? Open up the road so that they can work faster?"

"I'll have one of my witches work with them," she said.

"Thank you, Great Witch," I said. "Have you heard from Oolong? It's been two months. He should have gathered the dragon balls by now."

"Last I heard he was trying to steal one of them from a museum," said Baba. "My brother tells me he was quite enjoying himself, saying he hasn't stolen anything in quite a while. But that was a few weeks ago. People from the School of the Transforming Arts might be after him round about now."

"He'll love that even more," I said, grinning. "It's good that he's at least having fun in all of this."

Baba snorted. "As though you weren't," she said. "From what Master Roshi tells me, you seem to have found a rhythm with everything that's been pushed into action."

I shrugged. "I haven't really had time to think about it," I said. "But something about training the younger generation brings me a measure of fulfilment. Though that's quickly countered by the knowledge that we're no doubt setting them up for their slaughter."

"You're a morbid one, aren't you," Baba muttered. "It surprised me that you're one of my brothers. It makes a little more sense that you'd be one of Shen's."

"I'm gonna leave before you insult me anymore," I muttered. "Thank you for the audience, Great Witch."

888

"Things didn't go as planned," said Chiaotzu. "Gero showed some of his work but not enough. All the jets are things I've seen, things he's shown the military."

Piccolo was frowning, hands folded and looking out beyond the Lookout. "I didn't expect they'd be so powerful," he said. "Or that they would complement each other so effectively."

Chiaotzu shrugged. "It's not a bother. A few rotations and you can attack them, again," said Chiaotzu. "I want more than anything to read his mind, _know_ for certain if he'll pool his creations when we fight with the Saiyans, but leaving this place…"

"I know," said Piccolo. He took a breath. "Give me a location and I'll move in the direction. I'll read his mind. Maybe put your fears to rest."

Chiaotzu gave a nod and looked, using the power of Guardian to see all throughout the Earth until he found a location. He gave the location to Piccolo and the man flew off, disappearing into the world beneath.

It would be a year before he could step off the Lookout, any sooner and the magic forming between him and Mr Popo was liable to break, undoing the magic that sealed tight the Earth from otherworldly dimensions, and threatening an invasion of a different sort.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

"This is too early, I feel," I said. "We should maximise the amount of time they have training with King Kai. From what Kami told me, the guy is old enough that he'll give us innumerable tricks to use against the Saiyans."

"All good and well," said Oolong, he stood beside me in the form of a tall and muscular woman, his skin an uneven bronze with scarring visible through much of his body. He looked weather worn, but that was most probably an affectation.

"But it took me three months to collect all the dragon balls," he continued. "With how many spells are breaking, the spells keeping the dragon balls partially secret might be waning too and I might have competition next time. Beyond the obvious, which is, we don't know when _exactly,_ they'll get here."

"Right," I muttered. "Bulma's was just an estimate. Get at it, then."

"Rise, Shenron!" Oolong intone and the balls at our feet glowed a bright golden colour before the light shot up into the sky, the world around us being plunged into darkness.

The golden light, the solitary source now, got thicker, winding through the sky and taking on a sinuous form that slowly gained more weight; a fraction of a second had passed and the light shifted into an immense dragon. The dragon letting off a low light, through which I could see its green scales; the things head plunged down and glared in our direction, red eyes bearing down on us.

" **Speak your wish,"** Shenron ordered, his tone of irritation.

"Of course, Great Dragon," said Oolong. "I wish for Tien Shinhan, who is currently on the North Kai's planet, to be returned to a living state."

" **Your wish has been granted,"** said Shenron. He condensed into golden light, surge down into the balls while the dragon balls surge upwards; light startled to bleed into the world again, then, the balls which were in the air, broke apart, scattering throughout the world.

"He was a little nippy," I muttered.

Oolong was frowning as he hummed. "And Tien should have appeared," he said. "Or are the rules different because of what Chiaotzu did to their bodies?"

I shrugged. "Might as well go to the Lookout and fill them in," I said and sighed. "What are you going to do while the dragon balls are out of commission? Are you still being chased for the robbery?"

Oolong spread the most excited grin. "Yeah. It's the most amount of fun I've had since Bulma and the…" He shook his head. "I'd rather not think about it. But I'll be disappearing for the next year, I've been talking with Puar and we'll be working for an _in_ with the King. She hates it, of course, but it'll be fun."

I let out a low whistle. "Don't you think you're taking it a little too far?" I said. "If you get arrested—"

"Arrest for treason and then execution," said Oolong. "But luckily for Puar and me, we have friends in high places. One of them is even a god. I'm sure it won't come to our deaths."

"Even so, be careful," I said.

Oolong gave a short nod and then pulled out a capsule from his side. The model of jet that appeared was older and on the inexpensive side, but it was fast as it moved through the air. Oolong couldn't look to be too rich, but Bulma must have made changes under the hood; I watched as the plane moved over the constant clouds which hung over Yunzabit Heights and heard the crack as the plane roared away.

Three months too early from the six month point we'd wished back Tien, but what Oolong said made sense. Even with the scanner it had taken too long to gather all of them and it might take long because of how quickly things were moving. This was playing things on the safe side, but it was best that all of us were here when the invasion arrived.

With a last look around, and pushing past the urge to search this place for Piccolo's hideout. But then, what would I do when I found him? He was still stronger than me when it came to energy reserves and he was resilient enough that he would win a game of stamina. I wouldn't be able to win a fight between the both of us.

I took a breath and then flew into the air, spearing further up and towards the Lookout. It didn't take too long before I could see the building hanging in the air and I could see some of our student sparring; most of them were surrounded by telekinetic shrouds, reaching out and enhancing their grade of attacks.

When I came closer I saw that Yamcha and Chiaotzu had four students around each of them, fighting and _beating_ the poor kids hard. But they were pushing through, continually reworking strategy though it was to no avail. As I looked I couldn't help but think of Bulma's words about Piccolo's plan, how the people of Earth might lose hope when they were continually being attacked.

The same thing was playing out here. Some of the students looked hopeless, instead going through the motions in their tries to hit their Masters. This training would wear on them, more so after some had seen the full power that could come to bear in an experienced Martial Artist. They needed a win, even if it was small.

Over the next few weeks, between my turns spent training the students and looking after Goku's farm and giving Gohan so lessons into the use of his reserves, I thought the idea over. Of a way of showing them that they really were making progress even if it didn't look like it from their perspective.

It finally struck me.

"I need you to point towards me something large," I said to Chiaotzu. "Something that needs to be stopped. With the Sight, you must see a lot that you surely want to stop."

"You have no idea," he muttered and he looked older in that moment. He and I hadn't had the best of time since everything had begun, more especially since it outwardly looked like I was the only one who felt the deaths Piccolo had wrought.

But now, looking at him, I could see that I had been trying to make myself feel better at his expense; overlooking the large fact that all of this was a necessary step in the Earth's survival.

"Why?" he asked me. "You'd be putting them in danger, and you would be making it possible for us to be found."

"Even with the risk it will be good for our students," I said and then I told him about my thoughts on the psychology behind it all. I wasn't a profession where that was concerned, but I could make inferences and this was one.

Chiaotzu sighed. "It's something," he said. "That will be done and it might help those that have been feeling stir-crazy lately. Do you have any ideas on the logistics of it all?"

I shook my head. "But we have about two weeks before we have to fight Piccolo again. I'll have worked out the minutia by then."

It was really less than that by a day or so, but Chiaotzu nodded. "I'll start jotting down places of interest," he said.

888

"What is the meaning of this?" said the man. He'd been woken from sleep by two men, grabbing him and then throwing him in a plane, now he was being pushed through what looked like an advanced lab.

"All in due course," said the man in front. He was tall and muscular, with white hair and a cap on, but the strangest thing about him was his manner of speech.

They passed through a door an on the right was a room with a window revealing servers. It was a cursory glance, but the room looked almost infinite; row upon row of dark towers with blinking light.

He knew, of course, that the room couldn't be infinite, but it was imposing and _interesting_ more than anything. Why this? Especially in one location? What was being done and who was doing it?

They stepped through another door and turned into a room with a large device, a mess of wires all of them leading into the server room. In front of the device stood a familiar figure.

"Gero? What—what is this?"

"It's progress, old friend," the man said. "A large amount of progress, hopefully, in a short space of time."

Dr Frappe shook his head. "I'm not working with you again, Gero. Not after what we did with the Red Ribbon Army. I _know_ what you did to our creation. Breaking him down and…." Frappe couldn't continue.

Dr Gero didn't look the slightest bit perturbed. "I know, you know," he said. "I've been keeping an eye on you, old friend. Seeing if you've been doing anything of worth since our days. But it seems you haven't. How unfortunate that your mind will have dulled. But that will be fixed shortly."

"What does that even mean?" Dr Frappe asked and he couldn't help himself because he was genuinely curious.

"You remember what I was working on before our operations… _ceased?"_ Dr Gero said.

Dr Frappe nodded. "Uploading a human mind… If I remember correctly it was because your son—Surely you can't mean that you've succeeded, that _this…"_

Dr Gero nodded. "Alien technology. A device that can read human thoughts. All thoughts, quite honestly. The _how_ is still hard, because the processing power that would be needed to achieve that feat…" Dr Gero stopped in a sigh. "I couldn't recreate it, but I could turn the function towards something else. My original goal."

"But, where do I fit into all this?" asked Dr Frappe, though he knew with an absolute certainty why he was here.

Dr Gero smiled. "I want this for my son, for myself," said Gero. "But before I can do it, I need to see if it can handle your genius, only then I'll be sure that this truly works." Dr Gero looked at him men. "Hook him up."

Dr Frappe tried to fight but he couldn't achieve it, both men too strong. He accepted his fate, perhaps this would work and it would be another form of existence; the next form of existence.

888

"Please tell me it worked," said Bulma. Her eyes were shut and her stomach doing flips in anticipation.

There was a long silence before, "Yes, ma'am, it is. We're getting power from the extradimensional source."

Bulma couldn't help it, she let out a whoop, jumping in the air at her success. The box was beyond, in a deep room with a large box sitting in the middle, there were six large tubes connected to each side of the box, syphoning the power.

The beacon had worked and with it she didn't know the amount of energy they would have on their hands.

The possibilities were running through her mind when the computer screens turned read, danger messages flagging and then the box promptly exploded. The room had been built with this in mind, the reality that the cube might overload, but she'd hoped that it wouldn't.

This meant there was still a lot of work to do. But right now, with probably a near infinite amount of clean energy that didn't need the ship's engine, she could begin working on Piccolo's ship in earnest.

888

"Welcome to Other World," said a woman, she was much, _much_ taller than me, her skin an odd shade of blue and looking more like she was made of stone than skin. "How might I help you today?"

"Um…I've been sent by the God of Planet Earth," I said. "I'm here to fetch a warrior that was on the North Kai's planet. I have word that he'll be arriving soon."

"The entrance to Snake Way is just over there," said the woman, directing me to a gigantic door that led off to a visage that was filled with a myriad of golden clouds. "It would be best if you didn't cause too much trouble. Some of the inhabitants are powerful enough to cause trouble."

I looked in the direction of a long line of beings, some of them from Earth. Most were just walking forward, one step at a time, while others were bound in heavy, black chains that seemed to suck in all the light. Those beings looked in a tremendous amount of pain.

I hopped onto the Carpet and willed it to surge forward, moving past the Other Worlders scattered throughout the massive room, all of them moving with purpose, and moved through the exit. I flew higher up and saw the marvel that was Snake Way, a long winding road that was made of a dull golden metal.

Out of curiosity I flew forward, through the gaping mouth. At once something activated and the Carpet fell, no longer able to fly; I walked off and pulled the Carpet out of Snake Way, watching as it immediately rose from the ground again.

There was magic on the thing that meant flight was impossible, but the Carpet had another function: A limited amount of instantaneous teleportations under its belts. I took in a breath and then let it out, imagining the abstract concept that was King Kai's planet. It had been the same thing I'd done while coming here.

The Carpet lurched forward and the scenery around me changed, all at once I was standing in a planet that was too small and an immense amount of weight bearing down on his shoulder. It was automatic at this point, having spent time in the Time Chamber, that I pulled in energy and fortified my body.

Goku was the first person that I felt and I willed the Carpet in the direction. It wasn't too long flying on the planet and then I saw him, standing in place with his eyes closed in a meditative trance, arms at his side and red fire erupting from his body at times.

When I was close enough he turned and looked in my direction, his expression turning to surprise as he really saw me.

"Krillin?" he said. I moved closer. "What are you doing here? You're not dead, right?"

"No, I'm not," I said. "Just, was testing out something. The Carpet can teleport, I was seeing if it could make the trip across Snake Way."

"When was that?" he said.

"A moment ago," I said. "I'm not carrying a watch. But I'm sure it was instantaneous."

Goku let out a low whistle. "Wish we had that when we died," he said. "Took us two months to make a trip here. But then King Kai says that that was part and parcel of the training. This place, being dead, means that we're continually replenishing energy; so forcing us to expend energy quickly grows our reserves at a faster rate."

Goku whistled again. "Not that you'd need it. I'd thought, for a moment, that you were something else. Your reserves."

"Time spent in Time Chamber," I said. "I didn't think I'd be able to power up this quickly, but…" I shrugged. "I was working towards something. I thought Piccolo had kidnapped Gohan. I was working towards getting powerful enough that I could get him back."

"Chiaotzu's really taken to being Guardian well," Goku muttered. He sighed. "You're not still angry at him, are you?"

I shrugged. "I can't help that I am," I muttered. "A year spent with one obsession. Then, it turns out, it's all a lie." I let out a long sigh. "Then a lot of things happened and they're not good. Chiaotzu's been letting a lot of bad happen."

"Chiaotzu's Kami," said Goku. "I don't think you know how much pressure he's under."

"I don't," I admitted, "and I've tried to wrestle with convincing myself that he is under a lot of pressure. But…even when I do, it's weighed down by the fact that there are a lot of people dead and he's not doing anything to stop it. When I'm sure he could."

Goku was frowning at this and I went through it all, what had been happening on Earth for the last four or so months. The lines around his face got more in-set as the story went on. He let out a long sigh.

"This is part and parcel of the reason that I didn't want to become Guardian," said Goku. "It forces you to look at the big picture more than the small, forces you to consider the lives of billions and thus miss the lives of that _one_ person that's suffering. And I can't exactly blame him because it was the same sort of mindset that Kami, the previous one, taught me while I was training with him."

"But Chiaotzu wasn't trained by Kami," I said.

"No, but Master Shen is a cold teacher," he said, "and that's close enough to the mindset that Kami needed. I'm not saying it's exactly right, one person shouldn't suffer because they were a needed step, but I can't say it's entirely wrong too when I consider the alternative."

Goku sighed. "I think that that's what you've been dealing with more than anything. Trying to reconcile how the world is, the tough decisions that need to be made, with how you want it to be."

"I've chosen a victim for all this and it's Chiaotzu," I said. "I know this."

"But have you accepted it?" Goku asked and he shook his head. "I don't think you have. I don't really think you can unless you accept that what Chiaotzu is doing, is good even if it doesn't feel like it in the small scale."

"I missed you, Goku," I said with a sigh.

Goku grinned. "I've been missing all of you," he said. I heard a low howl, a growl that seemed to move through me and when I looked to my right I could see dog-creatures made of muscle spearing towards us too fast.

"You'd better go," said Goku. "Those things are used to dealing with the dead. They might…make you dead if they get their teeth on you." I got onto the Carpet. "Keep taking care of Gohan for me."

I nodded and then there was the lurch and the shifting of the scenery around us, then I was back at the mouth of Snake Way. I had to wait a few hours before Tien arrived and we teleport back to Earth.

888

"I don't like this," said the man, wearing the uniform of this sector's police department. "But these guys have managed to evade us for the last half year, not to mention the Ox King's put a lot of pressure our way to get things done."

"We'll be discreet," said Brea, towering over the man. She had her team spread out behind her, five in total. They were the most far ahead of the group, the ones most trusted by Master Krillin not to royally screw up the endeavour. "We'll need your files on the group so we can start to work."

The man nodded and then gestured. "Follow me," he said. "We have a room set up for you to operate in."

Brea followed, scanning the room as she walked. The place was relatively small, but that was more because she was big than anything, which meant she would have a hard time fighting anyone if a scuffle broke out. Fighting would be harder for her.

But it wouldn't be for her compatriots.

They entered the room and it was filled with boxes, three sets of computers and a desk in the middle. They room looked much like an interrogation room, even with one large window to the side, though she wasn't sure if they were being watched from the other side.

"I'll leave you to it, then," said the man and then he left, closing the door behind him.

Brea concentrated and a shroud appear, hers was a very dark blue, almost hard to see through. She spread it out over into a thin pane and then pushed towards the window, making it stick and barring the sight from beyond.

Doll acted, energy spilling as she reached into her well and then splitting to form several other wells, all of them with the same energy reserves, three of them were slowly shrinking, not regenerating. She was a tall woman, her face long and with a mischievous glint in her eyes; she had a long thin tail she mostly held up, and her fur was white with black spots.

"Do we really need to do this?" she asked as she moved to the boxes, starting to go through the files. "Kami could just look in the direction they're in."

"Weren't you listening to the briefing?" said Hisomo, his expression stoic and cold eyes directed at Doll with slight annoyance. "They're cloaked by a witch. We have to do this the old-fashioned way."

He was the oldest amongst them, a man in his mid-thirties who had trained in Martial Arts for a majority of his life. The story was that he hadn't been able to refuse when he'd learnt that there were techniques beyond his ken. It showed in the way he treated them all, that and there was probably friction between him and Doll.

Both were from the Den, and wars between their people meant that they're working together was strained.

Brea could understand it. Her cousin, who'd been born white, had often faced prejudice because of the colour of her fur. Their differences were so pronounced that it would easier for them to hate each other. It was necessarily right, but she could understand it.

"Right, right," said Doll. "Forgot. Let's quickly get to the brunt of this so we can move on. I miss the city."

"I have the opposite idea," said Ash. He was shorter, his skin tanned and with no hair. "How about we taking it slower. If we're doing this when the Demon attacks, then we don't have to be there."

"Coward," Hisomo.

"Rather a living coward than a dead brave man," Ash muttered back. He grabbed a box and started rifling through its content. "Can we even fight magic?"

"Magic is a branch of the Ki Arts," said Ben, the man sounding tired. He was thin and pale, his hair dark. The man had bags under his eyes.

"That doesn't answer my question," said Ash. "Sure they're made of the same thing but…Ice and water are the same thing, yet one is stronger than the other."

"If we keep our wits about us we'll be fine," said Brea. "Master Krillin trusted us with this task. Let's not disappoint him."

It was a measure of the Masters that even if they weren't here they had so much pull. But then, all of them had seen as they fought the Demon King, knew the strength they had even if they didn't seem that way most of the time.

They started and the days started to pass with the barest of information. But that was on paper, Lapis and Ash were the best of their telepaths and they began scouring through all the museums that had been robbed in the Ox territories; there were seven in total, but the artefacts that were stolen were rumoured to contain old magics and that made them invaluable.

"Noticed some obvious holes in memories," said Ash. "And that didn't mean much until I found them again on a security guard. He wasn't working for the museum, but some corner store that these guys used as an exit point. And there I found the footage. I've found their images."

"That's a first step," said Brea. "We have the Ox King's backing which means we have the entire database of this territory. But I can't help but think they might have someone on the inside. They might know about us, but the fact that we're an unknown element works in our favour."

"If we need to work quietly then I know a guy that works as a hacker for hire," said Ash. "He could do this cleanly."

"The problem becomes financing, then," said Lapis. "I don't think the Masters are rich."

"With their connections, why wouldn't they be?" asked Doll. "Lord of the Ox territories, Lord of the Turtle Isles, the Grand Witch Baba and Capsule Corp too? Why don't we ask and see? Maybe they do and if they don't, we can get creative."

"It's amusing that you missed Kami in that list," Hisomo said.

"I'll ask," said Bree. She did and she was surprise to find a large fund opened to them the next day.

The hacker didn't work in person, but Ash trusted him and that was a measure to his credit. Even so it spent a few days before they had a names to the faces and locations. It had cost extra, with the hacker claiming to have found a way into Capsule Corp's systems to get them the information.

"That seems entirely unlikely," said Ash. "That that would happen in such a short period of time."

"They could work in Capsule Corp," said Doll.

"Or that people in Capsule Corp are helping us along," said Lapis. "This is an experiment. The whole security company thing, and it's illegal in a lot of places which is why they're using their connections. Capsule Corp might have faith in all of this and want a piece of it before it sets off."

"Never minding the obvious connection," said Brea.

"And it's clever in a way," said Ash. "If that's true and maybe they used Capsule Corp to get their money, then they didn't lose anything, and this can't be connected back to them."

Brea shook her head. "We're speculating too much when we have a way forward. We have the location of one that's close, let's use that to propel us forward. It should be easier with access to their minds."

There were nods and then there was movement.

The house was rather small, but there seemed to be too many energy signatures in the place relative to its size. Their intel was that the place had an underground network, which was likely how they were moving their product. But from the density of the people around it was likely that there was more going on.

"I've got caches," said Lapis and Brea pushed herself into the Astral Plane. There, in the overlapping space, not yet in her defences where a stream of people and the information Lapis had collected from the cursory read.

"There were people with defences," said Lapis. "I didn't stray too close less I get figured out. I didn't know how much they knew about telepathy."

"That was good," said Brea. "Ben?"

The man, in his early twenties and wearing a pensive expression, gave a nod before his face scrunched in concentration. There was a spike, energy suddenly being pulled in, and then he started changing, his expression warping until he became fuzzy. He shrunk, continued to shrink and the hairs became harder as they shrunk. Then he was beyond sight until he was flying right in front of her, his form that of a fly.

Ben then flew off.

"I wish a better telepath would have gone," Hisomo said after an hour had passed.

"Too bad not all of us went to the School of the Transforming Arts," Doll muttered. She reclined a little, filing her claws.

Three hours passed and Brea was starting to panic, pacing in the small patch of land they'd camped in. The others, though some tried to hide it, looked equally shaken. Then, all at once, there was a flicker, energy flaring and all of them were moving.

Brea pulling in energy from her well and quickly turning it into kinetic energy. She surged forward and up, her hide bearing the impacts as branch broke off. She ignored them, moving further into the sky and then choosing the direction lead by Ash and Lapis.

"Found him," said Ash and the image was in her mind. Brea was the first to act, her hands tearing forward and pointing in the shape of a triangle; there was a crackle and then shaft of white light as she said, _Tri-beam Cannon._

Other shafts of light tore through the air and into the ground, now earth ploughing upwards because they were scouring the ground. Ben hadn't died yet, but he was expending energy and he was doing it fast.

The five of them dropped and it was immediately chaos, the sound of gun fire in a long hallway with Ben standing in the middle, a light blue sphere keeping the bullets at bay. It would disappear at times, but there would be another beneath, moving steadily closer to Ben's person.

"Behind you!" shouted a person and a few men turned, automatic rifles that were about to start firing.

Hisomo was the fastest, disappearing and appearing in front of one man. He grabbed and arm, pushing the rifle to point upwards while flinging a hand; a pink membrane shot off, pushing the three men to the side before they could fire.

There was shouting amongst it all, call to pull back from the other side but Brea and her team were moving too fast for the guards to react. In less than a minute they had every armed personnel in a state where they wouldn't pose trouble.

"What happened?" said Brea. "And quickly."

"I was spotted by someone," said Ben, his voice panicked. "A man with purple skin. They had a ship, like the one the aliens arrived in but older. I thought it might be useful and moved within telepathic range but—"

"Got their direction," said Lapis, interrupting.

"Then lead," said Brea. They flew through the halls, disabling any resistance that sought to bar their way and finding it surprisingly easy. Five minutes in total and then they entered a large room with a range of airships, most of them taking off.

Lapis reacted, pointing a hand and firing at a black jet that looked too similar to the jets they'd seen flying in the Kaprun City. They jet lurched right, but the place was too small, and it too big; the energy ball hit and detonated, enough that the jet was sent spinning.

The hatch opened before the jet could hit the ground and out jumped a short man, his skin purple and wearing the widest of hats; in his hands he carried the large pod-like ship, the thing's weight not bothering him and no influx as he pulled in energy.

"Be on alert," said Brea to the others. He knew that this would be a _fight._ "We might not be able to handle this. Ben, fly out of range and _spike._ We might need the Masters."

Ben nodded and then flew in the direction they'd come.

Purple reacted at once, one hand moving away from carrying the pod and pointing towards the entryway; a flash of blue light erupted from his hand but Brea had already reacted, jumping up and pushing energy into her claws; she clenched them together and then beat the thing down.

Below her the others had moved too; Lapis sending out green tentacles of psionic energy towards Purple while Ash fired a salvo of green energy balls. The man surged back and then stopped, shifting his weight to the side as Hisomo suddenly appeared in front of him, hand surrounded in a telekinetic shroud and swiping.

Purple had been caught by surprise by the motion, but he'd still reacted fast enough that he'd dodge the swipe. Purple kicked out but his legs were too short; Hisomo dodged and opened up a path for Lapis' tentacles to grab hold of the man, pulling him to the ground.

Brea moved forward as the man lost hold of the pod and grabbed it off of the air before it could hit the ground. With the thing in her arms, energy devoted to bearing the weight, she could do nothing but watch as her team fought.

Purple had regained his bearings and was dodging as tentacles tried to hit; Doll had split off four clones and they were doing a good job at finding openings to send energy blasts; Hisomo was just standing to the side and waiting; and Ash had his eyes closed.

"He's not there," Ash finally shouted. "Whatever it is, it's not human!"

At those words something changed in the way Purple fought. He seemed faster, better able to dodge the tentacles and no longer being hit by the energy blasts; he turned in the air as a blast was sent out of his way and something popped out of his shoulder. There was a small bang and then a massive flash of light, through it all a grunt reverberated.

 _The Solar Flare is our most powerful of attacks. The most useful because, no matter how strong an opponent, if it catches you off guard, it will make it hard to fight. That's why your first lesson is to defend against it._

The sound of movement in the air and Brea reacted; she took in a breath while pulling in energy from her well, she pushed the energy through her body into her throat and then conceptualised the energy transforming: It was no longer potential energy, but vibrations passing through the air, hurting forward.

With a breath out, she roared.

 _The purple man surged to the side, his arm ripped off and chunks of his face missing. He'd sustained damage but he was still alive, still angling towards Brea who hung in the sky._

The message filled her mind and Brea reacted, focusing her mind into defence and creating a membrane around her person and the pod above her. It wouldn't last too long, but her team members were already healing from the blast.

There was a flicker, a large energy well getting into her range; another sound, of air moving, of grunting and of shouts. Then there was nothing until her senses could come back.

When they returned she saw that Lapis had been taken.

She couldn't help but feel the deepest of angers and the worst of guilt, especially as she thought of what Lazuli's reaction would be.

888

"Fifteen," said Dr Gero. "You're damaged."

"There was an altercation," Fifteen said. "I was attacked by one of the warriors who helped defend the City of Kaprun. They weren't too far along their training, from what I could see, but they were proficient enough to cause trouble. They took the ship."

Dr Gero let out a sigh. "That's regrettable," he said. "But you brought something else."

"One of their fighters, yes," said Fifteen. "I thought it prudent that we get as much information to what they are, what they're trying to achieve so they don't go against your plans."

"That was good," said Dr Gero. "You weren't followed though? If they were the ones in Kaprun, then they'll be students of Son Goku's compatriots. They'll be looking."

"I managed to salvage the artefact," said Fifteen. He reached at his side and pulled out a small block of wood, words written on the thing. "We should be cloaked."

Dr Gero continued nodding. "Things worked out with Dr Frappe," he said. "I don't think there's been damage to his brain, he's in his full capacities. We'll have to prepare the base in the Turtle Isles before…" Dr Gero stopped, his expression twisting. "Before the next phase of our plan."

"Of course, Doctor," said Fifteen. "The captured fighter?"

"Get as much from him as you can," said Dr Gero. "I'll leave the _how_ to you."

With a nod, Fifteen left, already through the process of pulling interrogation and torture techniques from the web.

888

AN: Doll is a dog-person and Brea is a bear-person. That wasn't specifically noted in the story because it's not novel within the world, that and racial issues: White people nowadays, when describing someone black, will sometimes leave out the fact they're black even if it would be expedient description wise. I wanted that same sort of feeling.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

"We didn't manage to get any of them," said Brea and there was a slight panicked edged to her voice. Like most people, she stood taller than me, with a large frame, her fur sticking on end and an almost reddish brown colour. "But we were distracted by the robot. It—"

"It's fine," I interrupted, though it really wasn't. My stomach was twisting and a pit of anxiety running through because it was slowly hitting me that this was my fault.

I'd thought the plan was genius, raising moral for our students, but on their first mission one of them had been _taken._ I also hated the large part of me that was more worried about the fact that Lapis had a sibling than anything else, that I would have to tell that sibling that her brother was gone and right now we didn't have a lead.

I took a long breath in and then let it out slowly, letting my mind run out the possibilities, how I might be able to move forward but it didn't happen quickly. Around us was motion from others, they would be searching out the base for anything valuable; if we were lucky, then the items we were supposed to find for the Ox King would, indeed, be in their current stock.

"The ship," I said. "Where is it?"

"We moved it out of the exit-dock," said Brea. "We were afraid that while Master Yamcha was out chasing the robot, more of the traders might come back and we'd have to fight. I wanted all of us to be _able_ to fight this time, unlike the last."

We'd need to move it to Capsule Corp without being sighted. It wouldn't do to have Bulma's corporation tainted by illegal actions, not that it would be good for this…idea. We needed to move beyond the clientele that we were connected to, which meant that we had to be by the books.

"Smart," I said to Brea who was standing over me. "You can rest. I know you must have been busy the last few weeks, and _this_ must have been trying."

Brea looked as though she wanted to say something before she nodded and moved off. I stood in the middle of it all, watching as my students _milled,_ most of them carrying large boxes filled with things, the words 'checked' written across them.

It wasn't a moment later that Tien appeared on the Flying Carpet, he had a grim expression on him and he shook his head as he looked at me.

"I couldn't sense the thing," said Tien. "I split off into as many clones as I could but I couldn't even sense Lapis. I think it might be the same artefact that's keeping it out of Chiaotzu's sight and my sense."

"We'll have to look through other means," I said. "Magic and science. The crew we sent here did a good job of finding this place, we'll ask them what they did and keep working."

Tien nodded, looking at me for a long while before he said, "This isn't your fault. You couldn't have seen—"

I stopped him with a gesture. "I know," I said. "I just need to find out who _did._ Has anyone told Lapis yet?"

Tien nodded. "Yamcha. She's…pissed. She wants to head the mission to find her brother."

I shook my head. "It wouldn't do," I said. "She's be too unfocused, fuelled by too much emotion and liable to overreact."

"She isn't just going to accept that," said Tien.

"I know. But maybe time can help ease the feelings," I said, turning to look at Tien. "You've still got three tries in the Time Chamber. You can take a set of our students in there and train them. I'm hoping that we'll survive the following struggle and, against Frieza, we'll use the room again when it's most likely needed."

"I get it," said Tien and he nodded. "I'll set things up."

888

The scream reverberated through the Astral Plane and Piccolo felt it. At once he moved in a guessed direction, tearing through the skies and then dipping down towards the mountains. Even this close he couldn't feel anything, which meant they were either deeply in the mountain or there was magic involved.

Piccolo took a breath and pushed himself into the Astral Plane; he saw the threads of pain being thrown in every direction but he couldn't follow it: The dimensions in the Astral Plane didn't necessarily translate into the physical world. He wouldn't be able to get anything until he overlapped with the sender.

But at least he could guess where the pain was coming from. Piccolo pulled in energy and pushed it over his hands; in practised motions he held both hands over his head and paused, condensing the energy and letting it _stay._

It was an oft forgotten aspect of the Ki Arts that the amount of time afforded to an act, meant something; the very reason Piccolo afforded a set amount of time into his Special Beam Cannon. He hadn't pushed time into the Masenko for the longest time, but this was well worth it.

He'd come into the area searching for Dr Gero's mind for Chiaotzu and he'd yet to find it. Was he the cause of all this? And was the pain part of what the Doctor was working on? Would it help?

Piccolo stopped as he felt his hands starting to crackle, buzzing audible. But it wasn't enough. He devoted more time into the technique, pushing past the discomfort of the crackles of energy running up and down his arm, instead going for maximum effect.

The discomfort got too great and Piccolo thrust both hands forward; the giant ball of orange energy hurtled towards the ground, into a ridge between to mountains and it detonated. The explosion was loud in both sound and colour, sending out pieces of rubble flying in every direction though Piccolo kept himself shielded with a telekinetic membrane.

He couldn't feel anything, which meant the magical artefact was still in play, but the telepathic screaming had stopped as well. Piccolo waited until something hit, an image of a short purple robot with parts of its face missing moving out of a room.

He raised his hand over his head again, and focused energy and time into the attack.

"Masenko-ha!" he said and he thrust the ball into another ridge. The explosion detonated again and Piccolo moved his hands in position, preparation for another attack. There was no message so he thrust forward and detonated.

A message hit: A room shaking.

Piccolo changed tack, two fingers meeting his forehead and energy moving; there were two points, energy moving through his body up his arm and another from his head into the hand. The crackling started far sooner than the Masenko though it was the same amount of energy in both attacks.

This attack condensed energy further.

He didn't push too much time into this attack and then he pointed; a drill made of purple light tore through the air and cleaved through a piece of mountain. He moved again, getting into motion and preparing another Special Beam Cannon; when it was done Piccolo chose another spot in the region of his attack and sent another.

Six times he did this before he got an image in his head: Another man returning, tall and wide, his skin pale; the man moved forward and grabbed the sender, pulling off restraints that were unneeded because the sender's arms and legs had been broken.

Not that it would have meant much to a Ki Practitioner, especially one that was well trained. But the sender didn't seem too well versed, probably one of the others' fighters.

"Masenko-ha!" Piccolo said and he thrust energy towards a sect of mountains. He didn't get any messages from the Astral Plane which meant he moved his target again and again but still no answer.

They were most likely gone now. But if they were one of Chiaotzu's, he needed to know.

He pointed in a direction and started flying.

888

"My King," he said as he entered the throne room, taking a knee a distance from the King, with a fist clenched over his heart and his head down.

"Speak, Nappa," said the King.

Nappa looked up and his eyes met King Vegeta who was not sitting in his throne, instead the man hanging in the air and looking out of the large windows behind him. A golden city sprawled outwards, a myriad of shapes all of them reaching for the skies; there were some with bridges that connected some of the buildings.

The air was a mess with ships moving in orderly lines, stopping and starting, some of them reaching points where they flew vertically downwards before entering another lane and moving horizontal.

There was a beauty in the mess, in the cacophony of sounds from the window, the lights that shone from the buildings when the planet's sun dipped over the horizon and night fell. One, Nappa knew, the King loved watching.

"We got an info dump from Raditz," he started. "He found Kakkarot on the planet. It wasn't destroyed, just like Turles said."

"Which means we can trust him," said the King. "Or, at least, we can trust that he likes being alive." King Vegeta turned, looking down at Nappa. "How was he defeated? Are they strong?"

"Tricks and deception," said Nappa. "They told Raditz of mystical objects which can grant any wish. Raditz was interested even though he knew it was likely a trap, but he was overconfident, let his guard down.

"Most likely through telepathy, the three fighters communicated. They showed off a technique that blinded Raditz and then they attack, techniques that bore through Raditz's defences. He was under waters when he sent the message."

"Mystic objects to grant wishes," said King Vegeta. He landed. "It sounds preposterous."

Nappa nodded. "Though it might be true," said Nappa. "They can't have known that we were coming, their technological level hasn't reached the point where they can even travel into space yet which means they might not be able to monitor something as fast as our ships.

"I doubt they would have been able to plan so effectively and even have props. There's also the matter that both Kakkarot and his _human_ compatriot, Krillin, were reluctant to share the information about what they called: Dragon balls."

King Vegeta let out a long sigh. "Kakkarot is a Saiyan," he said. "But, from the looks of it, he's gone native. We could force him to come to this facsimile of our home, but I doubt he would fight with us."

"He could be useful for the breeding program," said Nappa. "We're already strapped with the little amount of bio-data that we have. Not to mention if the dragon balls actually do what they're supposed to do."

"You think we should go to this planet?" he said. "Even with the risk that Frieza might already have forced headed in the direction?"

Nappa nodded. "The prize is too great for us not to check it out," he said. "Imagine the infinite possibilities that having a wish gives us: A power boost that would mean your reserves are larger than Frieza's; immortality so that you might defeat him through brute repetition; wishing for our people back from death; or just wishing Frieza away."

"I know, Nappa," said the King. "I've considered it. I _am_ considering it. But I have to weigh the risks of it all. I already have an empire, conquered, but that's the way of our people. Risking all of that for something that might be a bluff…?"

He shook his head, watching the city.

"I have my doubts about this," he said.

"Then you don't need to go," said Nappa, not hiding the eagerness in his voice. "I could go in your place, taking a small force that wouldn't be traced by Frieza. We can go see if this is true while you keep looking for Paragus and his son."

"No," said the King. "That's your duty and you've been doing a good enough job at it." He frowned as he said, "Take your small force, take the _Resurgence_ as well. Take care of this as quickly as possible and then come back. If the dragon balls turn out to indeed be a bluff, take Kakkarot and his friends, we'll use them as ransom for his loyalty."

"Yes, my King," said Nappa and with a grin, he left to gather his troops.

888

"My Lord," said Ginyu.

"You have something?" Lord Frieza said, looking at Ginyu impassively.

"We're moving," he said in answering. "Nappa's taking a troop of a thousand to Earth. I'm not sure yet _why,_ but the situation will reveal itself as time goes on."

"Keep me informed as you're able," said Lord Frieza and the image cut off.

888

"It's Doctor Gero and we can't do anything about it," I muttered, my well opening without me being able to help it and arcs of electricity running over skin.

We were in one of the many rooms in the Lookout, though this one was special in the fact that it was an alternate entrance to the Lookout. I stood with Yamcha, Tien and Chiaotzu with me, while Piccolo stood opposite all of us.

"You could just attack him," said Piccolo.

"It doesn't work like that," said Chiaotzu sounding calm and patient. "Gero's company helps a lot of people through their medical technology, not to mention he's a major contractor for the military. I'd stake my title that they'd protect him even if they found out about this."

"If they believe us," said Yamcha. "We don't have too good a relationship with them since Goku died and Master Roshi's been strong-arming them to get Raditz back to us. But we can't just let him get away with this."

"Do you have an idea how we might take him down?" I asked.

"Puar," said Yamcha. "The Doctor's probably changing bases since Piccolo was so close to his last. From that we know that he works in these bases for whatever purposes. We just have to capture him and then have Puar pose as him."

"That'll be a little hard," said Tien. "Dr Gero knows a lot."

"You'll have to teach her telepathy. When we capture Gero, we'll cache all he knows and then she'll subsume it. A year inside the Chamber with her only having to learn telepathy and she might be strong enough that she won't be taken over by separate personality."

"But Oolong and Puar are infiltrating the Palace," I said. "We'll need someone else. Someone closer. Ben was a student in transformation techniques."

"But that requires us to tell him what's been going on," said Chiaotzu. "There's the chance that it might not work, that he might not like this knowledge."

"We're limited on options," I said. "We'll have to tell Lazuli; hiding this from her will turn things bad in the long term. It's better that she knows we respect and trust her enough even with this. It's better if we spread the knowledge to the entirety of Brea's group to so that, if we die, they know how to move forward. They have it in them to lead."

"Good enough idea," said Tien. "I'll gather them. We need to move as quickly as possible. You'll use the day to?"

"Talk to Bulma," said Yamcha. "Deliver the ship too. She might have a way forward. She's might be able to use her satellites to find Gero."

"I'll head looking for the base," I said. "Checking it for anything that might lead us to Gero."

"Be careful for traps," said Chiaotzu. "We don't need a death."

With shared nods we parted.

I took a team of six with me to the mountains of the Northern Region and started searching. We spent three hours before one of my students had the idea that things might move faster if we had equipment to measure the density of the earth while causing detonations above ground; that would give us a shorter search time.

I flew over to the North Capital and called Bulma to hook us up with the necessary equipment. It didn't take too long before I was over the mountains, setting off explosions at times until an ear in my voice told me they'd found a hollow ground.

It was disappointing to find that it was just a cave, but that quickly changed because when venting my frustration and punching a wall, the texture had been wrong.

"Tri-Beam," I said pointing at the section of wall and moving out of the way.

Two of my students reacted, hands shaped in a triangle and pointed in the direction; there was a white crackle before, with a shout, a beam of light flew forward and tore into the section at two points. The cave wall hadn't been destroyed but it was bent.

"Again," I said and the order was followed.

It didn't take long before the wall finally fell and beyond there was a revealed a long corridor bathed in dim light.

"Wait here," I said. "There could be traps and I don't trust you're fast enough to be able to handle them."

There were nods, though I could see a few hurt expressions at the comment. I didn't pay them any mind, instead focusing on pulling in energy and fortifying my body.

I rushed forward into the hallway and immediately there was a reaction, panels popping off and small guns appearing and pointing; I was at one side of the room by the time they started firing, energy flooding into my hand and being pushed forward. I got the first gun without trouble, pushing out of the way and then shooting the second.

More slots opened and there were more guns. I threw up a telekinetic shield but it didn't do too well in withstanding the stream; I dodged to the side and the flew up and down all while gathering energy. A quick salvo and the guns were disabled.

I moved forward to the end of the hall, my entrance barred by a thick set of metal doors. The moment I stopped a door fell from behind me, too fast and not entirely expected, and I was closed off; a hiss sounded, the room being filled by an invisible gas.

With a last breath, pushing past the momentary dizziness, I step foot on the ground and moved to the appropriate stance.

 _Kame—_ I thought and I felt as my energy started moving, it coming from my core and the _slowly_ moving to my hands. A shriek filled the air, sharp and beckoning my attention. I'd grown so accustomed to the technique that it was easy to filter it out.

I made sure to keep my mind at peace, taking my time.

 _Hame—_

The shriek got fiercer as the ball materialised, beams of light shooting out from the spaces between my hands. It was bright enough that it flooded out the artificial lights from the roof.

My heart wanted to beat faster, to get lost in the thrill of power, but I held it back, letting my mind imagine tranquil oceans as I kept energy moving through my body.

 _Ha!_

And I thrust forward: The ball of blue light, twice my size shot forward and hit the metal doors. The metal strained and buckled, bending against the force of the wave. It was few second and then the doors folded, passing into another long hallway, running down its length and then slamming into another set of metal doors.

The beam continued down a series of halls before it met a section that might have been rock. I detonated the attack, which was now small enough that it didn't cause too much damage to the surrounding area.

It was unlikely that Lapis was still here, but playing it safe didn't hurt anyone. I moved forward and out of the area filled with the gas, moving far enough that I could take a breath.

I looked back at the door that was bearing my path from behind and moved again into the appropriate stance. I made sure to pull in _too_ much energy, spiking so that those on the other side of the door would know to get away from the door. It was faster this time, not too much time spent into the Kamehameha before letting it loose.

This door was easier to break and as a group we started to search through the facility. From the looks of it, Piccolo had caught them unaware enough that they hadn't been able to clean up before they left. The deepest rooms had all sorts of machinery, a server room, a massive refrigerator, a few rooms with and living rooms, and a few rooms filled with computers though they were destroyed.

"Those are a lot of servers," muttered one of Bulma's people, letting out a whistle.

"Could you get us inside?" said another. "They might be better than ours. By the looks of this place the guy here is a genius and the stuff he'd be able to cook up if he wasn't held back by ethical constraints…"

"Careful, there," said the first. "That's the sort of thinking that starts one on their descent into darkness."

The other shrugged. "Still worth a see," he said. "So can you?"

I shook my head. "There's too much risk of us breaking something if we do," I said. "But, Bolo," I said to a man with blue hair. "Head to the Lookout and ask Chiaotzu for the Carpet."

"Yes, Master," said the man and then he left in a run.

"Is it safe that he be out there alone?" asked Misoko. "With what happened to Lapis?"

"He'll spike if he's in danger," I said, though my stomach tossed a little at the thought of losing another student. I pushed it all down. "We should get more people to run through this place, shouldn't we?" I asked the scientist.

"I'll make the call," said the leader of the group.

It took about an hour before everyone was back, and in the time those of us who still remained searched the rest of the base to ensure we hadn't missed anything. We hadn't, indeed there was nothing odd in the place, except all the humanoid robot parts in other rooms.

"I'm totally nabbing one of these," some of the scientists muttered. "Processor like I've never seen." She looked in my direction. "We can take this, right? We might be able to look through the specs, check patents and see how owned this place."

I nodded while wearing a bored expression as I watched.

There wasn't anything new I could learn from this place except if it held the direction for the new location of Gero's base. But I couldn't exactly just say that because we didn't have a direction to move yet.

A short man appeared with Bolo on the Flying Carpet and he had a harried expression as he looked at me.

"So," he said, and his voice was shaky. "It seems like the servers are housing a general AI."

"And that's bad?" I asked.

"Well…it's complicated," the man said. "It could be good, it could be bad. It's hard to know because I didn't build it or help in building it. I don't know how it's constrained. If it got out, it might mean the singularity or the death for all humanity. Those are extremes, sure, but…" He shrugged. "Something this powerful."

"What is general AI in the first place?" I asked slowly, trying and failing to imagine the picture he was painting.

"Layman terms: A machine that can think for itself. It's not scary on its own, but then you consider the implications: It'll think several leagues faster than us, it won't need to eat or sleep and, depending on how its programmed, it might be a cold logic machine."

I shook my head. "But why is that suddenly dangerous?" I asked. "I already know something like that. A robot that my friend befriended. It could think and feel. I don't know about the other things but he didn't want to hurt anyone."

"That's impossible," said a woman. "A discovery like that and it was kept secret? Do you know who created the robot?"

"Doctor Flappe," I said.

"Which, incidentally, is the AI's name," said the man. "It told me a tale that's quite hard to believe. That it was human and that Dr Gero of all people—"

I moved faster than all of them could react, energy pooling into my body and heading for my students first; quick motions and I hit a pressure point before they could fortify it with energy, putting them all to sleep.

"What—?" one of the scientist said. "What's going on?"

I let out a breath. "This base belongs to Dr Gero," I said to them. "It's something I don't want my students finding out yet which is why I put them down. I'm going to take away their memories of this conversation, unfortunately the same can't be said for you because it might impede your work. But this had to remain secret, no doubt you know the implications of what happened and what we're doing?"

Seven faces looked back at me, looking rightly terrified before they nodded.

"Do you think it's true that that thing is Dr Flappe?" I asked.

It took too long before one of them answered. "He's a hermit," she said. "Prone to disappearing. But there was a news report a month ago, that he'd disappeared from his home in the South Capitol."

"Could be that the AI found out about this," said one man.

"Doubtful," said the man who'd been in the server room. "The place locked tight. No outside connection to speak of. Speaking of which, this thing," he said gesturing at his laptop, "must never leave this place. For all I know he could have infected it with something that might help him escape the box."

"I'll leave you to all of that," I said and I focused on my students who slumped all over the floor; unconscious, their natural defences against my telekinesis was non-existent. I piled them onto the Carpet and then teleported to the Lookout.

I told Chiaotzu everything that had happened at Dr Gero's base and the work he'd need to do on the students before I was off again, doing a more in depth check of Dr Flappe and even having Bulma see if the man hadn't hidden himself in some corner of the world.

He wasn't where he was supposed to be, but the townspeople told me that this sort of behaviour was to be excepted of him, and that sometime he'd disappear for years before coming back. Which meant that the AI's claim couldn't be verified so easily.

Next stop was finding Eight, who was supposed to be in Giran Village. I questioned the people there too and I found out that he'd been missing for the last five years, having disappeared one night. The people explained that they hadn't thought to contact the police because Eight had been adamant that he didn't want that kind of attention on him.

"Obviously an AI," said Bulma. "You should have come to me with this. He's got functioning _androids_ and you didn't think it might…but then, something like this—"

She shook her head.

"Dad's been working on it as long as I've known him and he still isn't close…how didn't I know about Eight?" she asked me, an accusatory note in her tone.

I shrugged. "I didn't think it too interesting," I said. "I'm not a techie like you, Bulma, this sort of stuff doesn't seem revolutionary to me."

"The people I'm friends with," Bulma said with a long suffering sigh. She ran a hand through her hand, still with that long suffering expression. "Is it done yet?" she said, this asking a witch who had her eyes closed and was pointing both her arms in Bulma's direction.

"Almost, ma'am," said the witch. "Half a minute and the spell will be broken."

"I wonder what it'll be this time," she muttered. "You have no idea how much of my thought process these spells have been halting. You have no idea where we would be if they didn't exist in the first place."

"Spoke to Baba about clearing the slate and she said it would take too much time to do," I told her. "Not to mention that she's afraid that some of the spell might have other protections."

"What do you mean?" Bulma asked me.

"There are spell clouding how we use the dragon balls," I said. "Baba said I had interesting idea but no matter how hard I try to think on it the thoughts are stolen from my mind."

Bulma let out a long whistle. "I've seen the fort you've built yourself. The amount of power that would need to do that," she said. "You think it was a wish by Kami. The previous one?"

"Might have been," I said. "But why?"

"We could just ask Piccolo," she said and I frowned at that, letting the distaste show. "Then I'll ask Piccolo," she said. "But after checking out this AI. I want to see the code for myself."

"I'll take you," I said just as the witch said, "It's done."

"Holy _fuck,"_ said Bulma and she looked at the Carpet that I still stood on, though it was on the ground now. "That carpet can teleport."

888

"It's a step back," said Dr Gero as he got out of the submarine with a flashlight in hand. "With a lot of work that we'll have to do to get this facility functional but it'll do."

"Should we get things started boss?" said Thirteen. "You'll have to lay low. We're still unsure how they found us."

"It could be _magic_ of all things," Dr Gero muttered. "I hate that for so long I couldn't look and see it for the oddity that it is." He shook his head. "At any rate, I should study the artefact, see if I can't replicate its effect. But first gather the necessary supplies to keep my son in stasis, the necessary supplies for a neural transference machine and everything else so we can keep working."

"What about Dr Frappe," said Thirteen.

"They're working with Capsule Corp," said Dr Gero. "They're unlikely to let him out. But we should work quickly so that we're on an even footing in the off chance that he does escape."

"We're gathering too many enemies, boss," said Thirteen. "Powerful enemies. It's only a matter of time before we're found again."

"You're right," said Dr Gero, a sigh leaving him. "You have three days to get as much from the boy as you can. After which let him go. It might mean they ease their search on us. Also give them something else to chase after when you've released the boy."

"As you say, boss," said the android.

888

"Try and stop me and I'll take you out of my way with force," said Lazuli. Her hair was longer with a coldness to her eyes.

"You're not strong enough," I said, far too calmly. She reacted to that, heat filling her eyes before she lunged at me, a blue membrane wrapping around her arm and warping into claws.

She was fast, but I'd been expecting this. I pulled in energy and stepped back, bending when the claws lengthened; I let myself get further back into a backflip before coming into a stand. Lazuli used my retreat to jump into the air, flying off.

"Don't," I said as Yamcha made to move. "She needs to realise why we formed this in the first place. That it's inadvisable to act on your own against a stronger force."

I pulled energy and the _flew,_ moving in a wide arc and then coming to a stop in front of her. She stopped, moving to change direction but I conceptualised cordoning my well into four equal portions and then pushing out the clones. They moved, surrounding her before she really move in a direction.

"You can't win this," I said. "I have more energy that you, even with the year you spent in the Time Chamber and more importantly I have more experience than you. I trained you and I've fought against the others who've trained you. It's unlikely that you'll come up with something novel, that you've come up with something novel while you were still training: You can't win against me. Not on your own."

"Like you're going to help in finding my brother!" she said, more emotion there, more heat. "You have a war to prepare for and that's mostly what you're focusing when doing all of this. You can't give it your all because you might die and none of you want that. You're not going to put in as much effort as I will with this."

"And what effort is that?" I asked. "What can you do that we haven't been doing in the day you've spent there? We've pulled everything we can, got all our resources working towards finding Lapis. There's nothing you can do that we aren't doing."

"I know one thing I can do," she said. "I can take the fight to Gero. Force him out of his hole by dealing a blow to his entire organisation."

I could see her train of thought and I shook my head. "You'd be hurting a lot of people," I said. "The Foundation helps a lot of people, keeps them alive where they otherwise couldn't be—"

"He has my brother!" she said, the anger now turned into desperation.

"And we'll find him," I said. "I promise you that. Every day I'll look for him. Trust me in that."

She hung in the air, shooting a glare in my direction.

" _Do,"_ she said and then she flew towards the Lookout.

888

"Ingenious," said Dr Gero as he watched the feed. "And he doesn't know, are you sure?"

"He doesn't," said Thirteen. "I'll release him in Pilaf's territory. It's close to the Den, I have things to set up there."

"Do," said Dr Gero. "Please do."

He couldn't help that he was excited, because he was about to see the full lengths that Ki abilities could go in their unhidden form. For the longest time he hadn't been sure how the Red Ribbon Army, his main source of funding in his past, had been defeated by a boy. But since the spells which kept his mind closed had started to steadily be broken, he was learning more and more.

Now he knew the power that existed and there was the chance that he might successfully leverage all that knowledge to build a body leagues better for his son.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

"And that's the map complete," said Yamcha, putting the final 'x' over the large map that all of us were looking at. It was of the Earth and large enough that it could be detailed; differentiated by various colours through the various colonies and kingdoms and territories that made up the Earth.

"At least those spots that are dark spots," said Chiaotzu. "We've seen from Baba's palace that a powerful or practised enough witch can make illusions that fool even my site."

He hung in the air, a telekinetic shroud surrounding him and keeping him aloft to make up for his height. All those who weren't training were in here, having worked most of the night to complete this map. Lazuli looked the most tired, having been there on every search in the case that her brother might be found.

"But this is a device, isn't it?" said Brea. "The amount that it should be able to do should be limited."

Chiaotzu shrugged. "We don't know. It might have been created by Baba for all we know," he answered. "There's really no telling how powerful it is. But this limits the places he could be. Between me and Capsule Corp's satellites it's only a matter of time."

"You keep saying that," Lazuli muttered. "But it's been a day and nothing. You know this could be over if we—"

"We're not doing that," I said, insistent. She scowled in my direction before she let out a long breath.

"I need a shower," she said and then she walked off, out of the room.

"She's expecting a little too much in a matter of hours," said Yamcha.

"It's her brother," said Ben and he shrugged. "I can understand it, even if it isn't exactly helping us where we are."

"That's the trouble with being human," said Doll. "We're irrational creatures."

Hisomo gave a short snort at that, which I didn't understand. But Doll did because she shot a scowl in the man's direction; looking at Brea, there was a long-suffering expression. I made a mental note to ask her about that, if there were hostilities between the two. It wouldn't do to have them when the two had the potential of being powerful beyond ordinary comparison.

"What's the next step, then?" I asked, breaking away from that. "We're searching through two means. But can we go further? We could commission Baba for something that might help us find Lapis."

"I don't have the money," said Chiaotzu. "It's digging deep into the reserves my predecessors had keeping this many people fed and clothed," he said. "Not to mention the money we pushed into that hacker to help the Ox King. I can't afford Baba's rates."

"But you know her," said Brea. "Wouldn't she help?"

I shook my head. "No," I said. "She's not about to do that for what she might see as…frivolous. If it were to help against the coming invasion, then maybe, but to expand the energy that would be required for something like this…" I shook my head again.

"It falls on us to keep this up, then," said Chiaotzu. "But it also works in our benefit to keep planning forward. Ben, I need you to spend as much time with Bulma as you can. Being around her might help you in running a business when Gero's been found."

"I'll take the Carpet," said Yamcha, far too quickly. The pair moved to the Carpet and then disappeared. He would no doubt be spending the day…or night, or whichever time it was wherever Bulma was.

"We should rest for the night, though," Chiaotzu continued. "It won't help any if we're at less that full capacity."

"That goes for you too," I said.

"Technically speaking," he said as the rest left, leaving only him and me, "I don't need to sleep. The connection between Mr Popo and I means that I have a few perks that regular people don't. The need for sleep amongst the things I could survive without doing."

"But you still look terrible," I said.

He shrugged. "It doesn't mean there isn't strain enough that I mentally feel tired," he said. "Not with everything I'm doing on the Astral Plane _."_

"And what _are_ you doing?" I asked.

"Trying to gain a measure of immortality," said Chiaotzu. "Streaming consciousness into one of my avatars."

"And that's difficult?" I asked. "I would have just thought it would be cache information like Kami did."

He shook his head. "I'm essentially teaching the avatar to think," he said. "Much like what Bulma is studying right now. Except, unlike her, I don't have anything I can work off of. I don't know what I'm doing and instead being forced to experiment a lot. It takes a lot of strain, takes a lot of my processing power, so to speak."

"But is this really the time?" I asked. "Ahead of what we're doing? Ahead of what's coming?"

He shrugged. "There really isn't a lot that I'm doing stuck here," he said. "Only training and watching people. Seeing all the _bad_ that's in the world and feeling a large sense of hopelessness because even with some of the power that the position brings I still can't do enough. This will be a step in helping all of that. That's if we survive of course."

"Hope for the best, right," I muttered. Chiaotzu gave me a dry smile. "I'd better head to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow, relatively speaking."

It felt like too short a time before I had to wake up again and start taking my share of the morning lessons. Fortunately, it was ten of the most advanced students we had which meant I could teach them one of the harder techniques to learn, but one that was a precursor to my own.

"In terms of raw power, the Kamehameha is one of the most powerful techniques that currently exists," I started. All of us were in a patch on the Lookout, standing so we weren't disturbing the area where my clones were teaching the rest of our students.

"My master ran the calculations in his head and he had the thought that the technique might be powerful enough that it might destroy a moon-sized mass given enough time. But the technique's full power is almost impossible to achieve in battle."

I took a breath and moved into the stance, controlling my breathing so that it came out even.

"Kame—" I started, slowly moving through what was required; stilling my mind and focusing on moving energy through me. I let the outside world bleed out, instead letting the Wave consume me.

"Ha!" I finished and then I thrust my arms forward. The ball of blue energy materialised, three times larger than the previous ball had been and moving too slowly to be able to hit someone sufficiently aware.

All of us spent a good minute watching as the ball flew upwards before I detonated it. The distance was considerable and the explosion held no fire, instead being a large portion of sound, heat and a massive concussive wave that made the others _brace._

From their expressions, I could see that they now fully grasped the power of the Kamehameha, but they would no doubt have also seen one of its fatal flaws: I'd had to spend a full minute charging the attack before having released it.

888

"You're crackling," I was saying to Doll. "That means you're being impatient, trying to push too much energy in too short a while and you're wasting energy through the crackling."

I stood back and spoke to all of them.

"Even _I_ haven't fully mastered the Kamehameha," I said. "In its truest form, the technique should waste no energy at all, it shouldn't even send out the piercing shrill sound that mine lets off. This crackle is bad for the attack."

"But that's just Krillin being a stickler," said Yamcha as he stepped into view. "There are variants to the technique that are more useful," he said. He bent low and gathered energy, there was a shrill piercing sound and a crackle of blue electricity around his arms; he thrust forward, the attack not angled towards space, but instead straight.

Looking at his variant, it had a blue core instead of just the light blue of Master Roshi's Kamehameha. But Yamcha wasn't done, he quirked his still outheld arms and then his ball changed direction, tilting upwards.

"The Kamehameha allows creativity," he said. "But first you have to understand how it works, theoretical aspects that your master, here, never paid attention to while he was in training."

I scowled in Yamcha's direction and he couldn't stop a smirk from forming.

"You're all tired," he said. "You've been expanding energy. So, you'll be happy to know that you're not going to be sparring or using the remaining amount in your reserves. Instead I'll be teaching you the theory behind the Kamehameha, at least how I was taught."

"I'll leave you then," I muttered. "I'm not looking forward to this."

I absorbed the clones that I'd let off and felt as my reserves were replenished by the remaining amount of energy that they still had and the memories of their experiences and their thoughts in the timeframe came to me. I went inside the Lookout and visited Chiaotzu.

888

"I see them," said Chiaotzu. We had been eating, the pair of us, discussing more of the future and what it was that he was trying to do in the Astral Plane, how he would move forward. It really was incredible that he could do all that while scanning through the entirety of the Earth for Gero.

"Call the others. I'll be moving ahead. Grab Lapis and then send him back with a clone. We might be able to get something from the robot and what his plans were." I said all of this while moving to the Carpet.

"Be careful," said Chiaotzu. "We still don't know what these things are capable of."

I nodded and stood on the Carpet. "Honduras," said Chiaotzu. "In the Den."

We were overlapping in the Astral Plane and so I could see the image of a city street, of a derelict warehouse with a bound Lapis held by a large man with a baseball cap; around them were other men, seven in total and they were all holding guns.

I held them all in mind as I appeared.

Immediately I rushed forward towards where the robot held Lapis. It reacted, bringing up a hand but it was too slow and I was already there; I grabbed Lapis and then twisted out of the way as a lance of blue light shot out of the robot's hand, hitting the other side of the warehouse and cutting through, rubble falling.

"Gun them down!" I heard and I shot into the sky with Lapis held close, darting left and right so quickly that I no doubt was leaving behind after images.

The robot tried to fly towards an exit but energy flooded my right hand, and a ball of was sent hurtling towards it. It dodged and the ball hit the roof, causing large pieces of rubble to fall in waves over the robots, being pushed off by something invisible. In the corner of my eye I saw as guns turned to point in my direction and I moved towards the robot, spitting out three clones and then subsuming two.

I continued forward while the clone grabbed Lapis and flew steadily closer towards Carpet, sending out shockwaves when it looked like it was going to get shot. The robot pointed both hands, shooting lances of light but they were moving too slow; I ducked, steadily moving forward until I was within reach. A punch and the thing dodge, extending a leg; I swerved back only to scream as pain flashed at my side.

My clone had disappeared with Lapis and the man now were shooting at us again.

It was set at this point that my avatars accepted the pain and I could continue forward. But there was only so long that this fight could continue when I was losing blood. In the short space of time sing being shot, the robot had moved forward and struck; too lost in thought I couldn't get out of the way and the punch landed, sending my hurtling into the ground.

The robot tried to run again; "Tri-Beam Cannon!" there came the shout and one side of the robot disappeared as it was hit by the attack. I looked in the direction it had come and Tien was standing there, with his hands held in a triangle.

Yamcha was there too, his telekinetic shroud surrounding the men that had shot me. I let out a breath of relief, because Kami knew how an extended fight might have turned out.

"You alright, Krillin?" said Yamcha, moving towards the Carpet while keeping an eye on the robot which had spark erupting from its exposed innards. Tien was looking at the thing without letting his guard down.

"Yeah," I said getting to my feet. "Let's subdue this thing. Careful, the damage might not necessarily translate itself to a loss in efficacy."

Tien gave a short nod while Yamcha disappeared with the men in tow. The robot, it's face partially damage, gave a large grin before there was suddenly a large explosion; everything happened too fast, the ball of energy expanding faster than I could outrun when there were obstacles and the amount of energy I was pulling in not enough that I trusted I could get through the damage unscathed.

"Kaioken!" I heard through it all and then something slammed into me, fire touching my skin and the pain being shunted to an avatar; I was lurched back before I moved suddenly down and then up for the longest time before stopping.

When it was done, the motion stopped, I was aware that I was no longer in the warehouse and instead I was looking down at the detonation site, where over half a dozen buildings had been caught in the explosion. I looked at Tien, who was breathing hard, sweat lining his forehead and looking at though he was on the brink of fatigue.

"Gero's gone too far," I said, looking at the devastation.

Yamcha appeared not soon after and the scenery bled into the sky of the Lookout, where we were in a medical room which Chiaotzu and Lazuli looking over the still unconscious Lapis.

"I've sent Brea to Korin to get some Senzu beans," he said. "After which I'll begin looking through their minds," he said, gesturing at the still bound men. "But…Krillin, _look_ at them."

For the first time I did, really taking them in and I felt my stomach lurch. "They're military," I said. "This was a trap."

"Fuck," Yamcha muttered. "But…why?"

"We only have to keep watching to see the ripples of this," said Tien, and indeed what followed was bleak. The sparks of a war seemed to have started; an exceeding number of the people who'd been killed had been canine-sapiens and since we were homo, a lot of people had seemed to think that this was a racial matter.

There were riots in parts of the city because the canines saw this as something that was long coming, and the homo lead government hadn't been taking seriously enough. Above and beyond all of that, were our faces plastered in the news as the instigators of all of this.

"It's only a matter of time before they ask for us to be turn ourselves in," said Tien. "It might be because they really want it, which I doubt with everything that _will_ happen, but they have to look as though they're doing something."

"This will impede us, though, when Piccolo attacks," I said. "He's deadlines are coming up in about a month. I can see a situation where the military is a little more blasé in how they shoot the next time there's a fight."

"Are we sure we can't just ask Piccolo to stop," said Yamcha. "At least until we've dealt with all of this?"

I looked at everyone before I shrugged. "Piccolo's hard-headed. He's got something in my and it might not be possible to sway him from that path. But if anyone could be able, it's Bulma. They have something of a rapport."

"I'll talk to her," said Yamcha.

Chiaotzu shook his head. "I can't hear them and I haven't had time to start learning lip-reading since everything started, but they have all our pictures and they've been sent out to the various sectors except the Turtle Isles, the Ox Territories and Baba's territory. Any of us makes an appearance and they might arrest us."

"They'll likely be a list of all our students too," said Tien and Chiaotzu nodded. "Let's do nothing," he said. "We've been holding up a majority of the defence where Piccolo's concerned. They might loosen these restraints when they've seen how much they need us."

"But," I started only to stop, letting the emotion of it all flood away as I thought about the future. If we were 'accidently' shot and killed, then it might have been that the Earth's defence would be weakened; the entire destruction of the Earth instead of a town or a city.

I let out a long breath. "Fine," I said. "But the students won't like it."

"We'll tell the future leaders," said Chiaotzu. "Everyone else I'll have to implant avatars that mean they don't think about what the fights that we've missed."

"This is starting to get shady," said Yamcha. "Exceedingly cult-like. Which is worse seeing as they haven't exactly been given a lot of time to do what they want. The smarter ones will notice that and we'll have deserters. The bad kind."

"It's needed," said Tien.

Which it was, but, "No," I said. "It would be going too far. It would be a major breach of trust. We tell them what's going on. They'll decided whether they feel the need to keep protecting people or not, and we'll give them the resources if they want to."

"Even if it means their deaths?" said Tien. "Never mind that it would be weakening us, but you would be sending them to die if what we fear is true."

"We'll tell them everything," I said. "Give them every bit of knowledge required to make a decision. Make it clear to them that there's a large chance that they might very well die."

"We'll also have to tell them that we won't be doing anything," said Chiaotzu. "Some might understand. But the greater number will see this as reason to leave."

"At which point they'll still know that there's a future threat and they'll keep training," said Yamcha. "It won't be the same as if they'd stayed. But they'll be there with us when we fight. We won't have manipulated them into anything this way, instead letting _them_ make the decisions. I'll take care of that side of things, I'm the friendlier face here. You deal with Gero."

Yamcha left.

"How _do_ we deal with Gero," I asked. "We don't even know if he's actively working with the military or if they're pawns in all of this."

"They're pawns," said Chiaotzu. "They didn't know why there were, only that there might be new tech in play. They don't even know that Gero has anything to do with this; the android was something he kept close to the chest. The only reason I knew about it was because I was suspicious of him from the get-go."

"At least we have a direction," said Tien. "We know that Gero lost one of his robots, while the other needs fixing. There's going to be movement of tech, either through legal or illegal means. We keep a watch on that and we might follow his trail."

"Ash is good at that sort of thing," I said. "I'll have him contacting his friend and it might be time to make more money. Set ourselves up in the black market. Which would be so much easier if we had Oolong with us."

"Or, Master Shen," said Tien. "His brother was worked in the Red Ribbon Army. He might help us. A path I'll take, even with the risk involved."

"Before you go," I said as Tien started to move. "What you did back there, moving so fast that even _I_ couldn't track you."

"The Kaioken," said Tien. "It's not something I can teach. It works better when you're already dead and your body won't give out because of the exhaustion. Even I can't take it to its fullest. But Goku might with the extended training that he has."

"What exactly does it do?" I asked, looking at my arm, the skin had slightly twisted, burned by the excess of energy.

"I pull in energy that isn't my own," he said. "Much like Chiaotzu is doing with Mr Popo. But unlike him, this isn't magic and it's violent. I can't control the amount of power that I'm taking in and there's excess enough that it strains the body. In practice, it means magnification of _everything:_ Strength, speed, mental capacity. _Everything."_

"That would be so useful for us to have," I muttered. "Can't Chiaotzu use that instant learning thing that he does?"

Chiaotzu shook his head. "The information is protected by a very powerful avatar," said Chiaotzu. "I tried going against it and I lost some of my advanced avatars because of it. It'll take quite a bit of time before they're up and running again."

Not that it meant much when I looked into the Astral Plane and saw those four towering avatars, who shot beams of light where they looked. When the shaft of sight-light shot in my direction, or at least in the direction of my protections, I could feel the _weight_ of them bearing down, shaking the walls.

" _Damn,"_ I muttered under my breath.

888

"Gero," said Toa and he let out an Earthy chuckle. "Now why would I want to do that?"

"Money, of course," said Tien.

Toa grinned. "It'll take a lot of that seeing as I had to have the displeasure of seeing his ugly mug," he said gesturing at Master Shen.

"And we have a lot," said Tien. "But we have to get Gero."

Toa kept grinning. "Then let's get to work."

888

"Incoming call, sir," said Fifteen.

Dr Gero tsked. He'd been moving through the process of jotting down all the required to build another android, above and beyond creating a body for his son, repairing the superficial damage of Fifteen and thinking over how he would create servers that weren't out in the open as Flappe's had been.

"Who is it?" he asked, annoyance in his voice.

"Mercenary Toa," said Fifteen. "He said he might have something that would interest you."

"Then put him on," said Dr Gero and he moved for the communication room. "What is it?" he said to the man, still not hiding his irritation.

"Half of a million Zeni," Toa said in greeting. "It's worth it."

"Fourteen," said Dr Gero without even thinking. The Mercenary had helped when times had been tough, when everyone had been after Gero and before he'd had enough money to stand on his own. "Make the transfer."

Toa looked down and with a smile said, "You've got Kami after you. _Literally._ If you're using one of the derelict bases of the Red Ribbon Army then it's only a matter of time before you're found."

"All your doing, I'm sure?" said the Doctor.

Toa shrugged. "I've been looking at everything that's happening and I'm aware that I need enhancements," he said. "I need the money first and foremost, and I need you alive if it doesn't greatly risk my life."

"A few months and that will no longer be a worry," said Gero.

"I'll take your word for it," said Toa. "But be careful. They've got unparalleled surveillance system from how they speak. The only reason they can't find you now is because of magic."

"I know this," he said. "Do you know what this surveillance is or how it works? It might ease how I interact run from them."

Dr Gero had watched the feed hooked up to boy they had captured, but it had yet to show anything really or worth save that they had a rug that could teleport. Most of his time the boy had spent speaking with his sister, shivering as he explained what he'd been subjected to over his stay with the Doctor. Not yet useful, but it would be.

Toa shook his head. "What I know is, don't get your supplies through illegal means," he said. "They're watching out for that. They've contracted me and you can believe that I'll do an excellent job."

"Even while needing me?" Dr Gero asked.

"I've got a reputation," he said. "And I've been hearing good things about some of the work being done in the Den. All hush-hush, of course, but there's word that your prosthesis might be a thing of the past. But you must know all about that with the recent attack."

Dr Gero frowned. Pretending that you were cognizant of certain facts was often good, it meant you could fool someone into thinking you were in a position of power. But that was tossed out of the window if you were ignorant and were genuinely curious.

"How much," he said and when the price was said he transferred the amount. "What are you talking about?"

"Clones," said Toa. "Some research into stem cells or something to that effect. They've been re-growing the limbs of those affected. It's revolutionary. Or at least the first steps to something revolutionary."

"And exceedingly secret if I haven't found out anything about it," said Dr Gero. "Or…Fourteen, is this something else that's been hidden by magic?"

The large android shook its head. "None that I know of," he said. "This information was beyond even us. Not that we were searching for it. Everything's been moving too quickly."

"People know about my own surveillance," he muttered under his breath and then he looked at Tao. If he could betray others to serve his own interest, then it was possible that he was doing the same to him. "Thank you for the information," Dr Gero said and then he cut off the connection.

"Fifteen," he said. "It's now priority that you find out more about this research. It might help us towards something I've been thinking about, push it faster into reality; Fourteen, we'll have to move faster in getting the necessary supplies. It's only a matter of time before we're found."

"What about the others," said Fifteen. "Kami?"

"Tao doesn't know where we are," said Dr Gero. "He thinks we'd be foolish enough to use a base someone might know about. But he might make the connections. We have to hire someone to kill Ivan, hopefully he hasn't disclosed this information to anyone."

888

Even with the amount of money it had taken to contract Toa, it was a boon that we had. He'd worked in the past with Red Ribbon Army, and though he made it a point to keep the information provided by his client private, he rationalised that since the Red Ribbon Army didn't exist anymore he could disclose information pertaining to them without breaking his word; all of this meant that he knew where so of their bases were.

Chiaotzu checked them first, looking for any that might have people still in them and found that almost all were empty, scattered throughout the world with even a few in underwater caves. Then we had to move as carefully as we could, searching through the base just in case it was hidden by a magical device.

All of it together took the better part of three weeks and soon we had to stop because Piccolo was going to attack soon. It was round about that time that the first of our students left.

888

"Even with the risk," said Bolo, "we should protect everyone as is our duty."

He spoke to Hare, a woman that stood twice his length, thin and wiry, and her ears tied back in something resembling a pony-tail. She was smoking, something he couldn't understand how she could do with her heightened senses, but he didn't question it. Bolo stood looking out in the horizon, watching where the darkness of space met the blue of the ocean.

There was no one around them, others most likely in one of the many rooms in the Lookout.

"The Masters aren't fighting and it makes sense," said Hare. "There's still the invasion to think about."

"I wonder if that's not something we're just telling ourselves because we're afraid of the Demon King," said Bolo. "We've all seen how powerful he is, easily keeping up with the Masters while they've outnumbered him, that's clouding how look at this entire thing."

"There is such a thing as self-preservation," Hare returned. "We might rationalise it this way and that, but at the end of it all, we don't want to die."

"I fear what how we'll actually be when the invasion starts," said Bolo. "If the same sense of self-preservation won't cloud how we fight then."

"That'll be the endgame," said Hare. "Live or die. We won't have much of a choice."

Bolo let out a long sigh before he looked around, checking that they were still alone. He even dipped into the Astral Plane, making sure there weren't any avatars that would be listening in. There were many overlaps, but none that were paying attention to them.

"Don't you feel like we're making too many concessions?" he asked. "Ever since everything started." He let out another breath. "You know how the Masters fight. You've seen the stuff they can pull off. Don't you ever think…"

"That they're working with the Demon King?" said Hare and she sounded blasé. Bolo couldn't stop himself from looking around again, checking the Astral Plane. "I know. Many of the telepaths know."

"What? And you haven't told anyone else?" he said, aghast.

"It makes pragmatic sense," said Hare. "It makes logical sense too: None of us have died. Ben came close to it, but even he said that he found it odd that he was still alive. I don't think they've been really hiding it. I mean they have, but…" She shrugged.

"And yet we still fight with them?" said Bolo.

Again Hare shrugged.

"I think I'm leaving," said Bolo. He let out a huff. "I'll fight during the invasion. But with everything that's going on here?" He shook his head. "I don't think I can knowingly let all of this happen."

Hare gave him a long look. "Then you'll be fighting when the Demon King attacks?"

Here Bolo hesitated, before he scrunched his expression and nodded. "I'll be there."

Hare gave a shrug. "I'll talk to Doll, get her to talk to the Masters about loaning us the Carpet. There'll be more people who'll want to fight when they see that you've defected."

"But you won't?" said Bolo.

Hare shook her head. "With enough power I can effect change," she said. "From what I've seen the Masters do, and the _more_ that they haven't shown us yet, it's in my best interest if I stay and keep training."

"I'll see you when the Demon King next attacks," said Bolo before he took off. Flying down. He was surprised that the Masters didn't stop him much as they'd stopped Lazuli a matter of weeks ago.

888

"Oh, fuck," Chiaotzu muttered as we were eating dinner; his telekinetic shroud surrounded him before she hot off out of the room and towards the _outside._

We followed, already pulling in energy though I couldn't sense anything. When I was outside, though, I could see it, a second moon, much smaller than our own, peeking over the horizon.

"They're here," I muttered, though it was absolutely obvious.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

"They're six months too early," muttered Tien, a hard cast expression on him. "We've just used the dragon balls and we won't be able to wish Goku back. They're fucking _early._ How?"

We hadn't moved from our spot in the Lookout, instead watching the second moon with a sense of apprehension. They were leagues away even though they felt closer, _looming_ with how large their ship was, but they were far enough away that they weren't in our range. We couldn't even sense how powerful our opponents were.

"I don't think that's important," said Chiaotzu, trying his best to placate Tien.

"You should have wished Goku and I back at the same time," he said, anger lacing his tone. "If you had, we'd have more people." He said this looking at me, his tone accusatory.

I ignored him, instead pushing my mind towards working. We hadn't yet reached the point where we'd started planning what we were going to do because we'd thought we had more time, we'd thought that everyone that we had would be together and all our abilities laid bare before we talked through everything.

Instead we were in this situation, with Tien and me being known as criminals, and no doubt our relationship with the military soured because of Dr Gero's actions. Was it possible that the saiyans had someone who could see the future on their side, and they'd been told that this was the worst of times that they could arrive on Earth?

I shook my head, that seemed unlikely, rather more likely that we'd underestimated the unknown enemy, or at least made too many inferences about the abilities they had.

"They're moving," said Chiaotzu, his words breaking through. "They just shot off over a dozen small pods and they're not going down but rounding the Earth's orbit." He frowned. "One of them is starting to open. They seem to be all geosynchronous satellites."

"Watching us," I said, letting my mind run. "That doesn't make sense if they're just going to attack us. Instead it might mean that they're going to test how powerful we are, what we can lay to bare, before they start searching for the dragon balls."

"Or they might be trying to find Raditz," said Tien. "Should we use him as a hostage?"

"It would be the smart thing to do," said Chiaotzu. "But there's the fact that we'll have to work with The Central Army if we want to get at Raditz, above and beyond everything that's happening in the Den."

"Surely that's been pushed aside though," I said. "We have an _invasion_ on our hands."

Chiaotzu only shrugged. He let out a sigh after watching something Tien and I couldn't see, then he said, "I'll wake the others. We should get move on collecting the defectors before the satellites reach their positions. They likely don't know about the Carpet which means it's a secret we'll have to keep."

"I'll call Yamcha," I said. Many of the students were rushing out of the Lookout at this point, looking into the distance and then the expression of fear casting over their expressions. It was very likely that they weren't truly ready for this, but whether or not they were, they could do nothing but fight.

I found the phone and called, Yamcha picking up instantly. "I'll need a lift for discussions," he said. "They're too early and looking at the footage of their arrival, Bulma says they were likely using a wormhole. She didn't account for that."

"How are things moving down there?" I asked.

"She says there'll likely be a meeting of heads," Yamcha answered. "Whether or not we'll be invited is in question after the Den. But Master Roshi could take us as part of his party. Of course this would mean he wouldn't be able to invite the Commanding Officer of his armies."

"How would crashing be seen?" I asked and Yamcha repeated the question to Bulma whose voice was indistinct over the phone.

"Most likely we'd be shot," said Yamcha. "Or they might let us in. Everything's up in the air right now because they're too early. Everything is still fresh and it might be hard to manoeuvre. It'll be stupid, but people will be thinking beyond this and they'll be thinking _politically."_

Bulma said something on the other side.

"This is just conjecture, though," he added. "This is a world scaling event and King Fuzzy might do away with the politics and just invite us to the meeting."

"Do you have a time before this starts?"

"No," said Yamcha. "But I'll be listening in."

Bulma said something else and then her voice came from the phone, "There are satellites in the sky. They'll need to be destroyed. We don't want the watching us because we don't know the capabilities of the satellites. You can fly into the Earth's orbit, right?"

"We still need to breathe, Bulma," I said.

"I have suits," she said. "Meet me at Capsule Corp. In my lab. I don't think Piccolo's ship has weapons, but I can pilot it enough that it should make it to the satellites."

"No," I said. "We should hide it. Reveal it at the last moment just in case it becomes instrumental to a plan we'll hatch."

"They already know about it," Bulma said. "But they won't know about the Carpet. It makes more sense that we use the ship. It makes the most amount of sense that we use it quickly before Piccolo thinks to take it away."

"Are there any activated satellites over your position?" I asked.

"No," said Bulma. "Most are still configuring."

"Then expect me on the Carpet," I said and then dropped the line. I moved to the room where Brea was operating Carpet, bringing in the students who'd defect. Many of them looking at me awkwardly as they moved but they quickly went outside to join the others.

"Take me to Capsule Corp," I told Brea, while quickly telling her what I was planning to do, though Chiaotzu would no doubt know if he looked in my direction. The scenery shifted and I was at the base of Capsule Corp; I jumped off and the Carpet disappeared quickly after.

I made my way through Capsule Corp were there was a mill of fervent activity, most of the people looking harried, bags under their eyes and sometimes looking at the sky. They were shielded by a roof, of course, but that didn't seem to alleviate the need to look up towards the aliens in the sky.

"You didn't bring people?" said Bulma.

I shook my head. "They might be watching the satellites," I said. "It's best if we hide that we have other Ki Practitioners. I don't know the model they're working off of, but the only people they should know who fought Raditz were me, Goku and Piccolo. They might have formed a baseline with that information in mind, I don't want to give theme too much when it's unnecessary."

"Which means I won't be going with you, will I?" said Yamcha.

I shook my head. "I'll take a small amount of people to pilot the ships and then just shoot at them energy balls."

There were three of us, Bulma, a woman name Marian, and me, all of us dressed in sleek space suits with a large canister at our backs. Bulma said the ship most likely would produce oxygen since that was what Piccolo breathed, but she didn't want to take the chance that Piccolo _also_ breathed oxygen.

The two woman pressed a few buttons and the ship awoke, holographic screens coming to light and displaying a language I hadn't seen. Bulma and Marian both detached lines of wine from their suits which they plugged into slots at either sides of their chairs. I followed their lead, running my hand over my suit and filing the line; I pulled and connected it the slots.

An HUD lit up in front of my eyes and then there was a stream of data to fast to read. It was quickly over and then went I looked at the holographic screens, their translations were superimposed on the information. But most of it still didn't make sense to me.

The same couldn't be said for Bulma and Marian because they started pressing buttons. The ship reconfigured, with control sliding up and both women taking them. The ship lurched and then it flew forward, down a deep tunnel before it hit water; when it was out of Capsule Corp, the ship stopped and the flew vertically up.

In seconds we were truly in space and we were moving forward only to quickly stop as we spotted the first of them. It was an ugly looking thing, boxy and made of a black material; slowly, the thing was reconfiguring, slots opening and parts coming out of it, growing with a nozzle coming out of the front. It looked like the lens of a camera.

I got up and moved, pressing buttons for the hatch to release and then flying to stand on our ship. I pulled in energy and moving it to my hand, but before I threw a voice interrupted me.

"Krillin," said Bulma, her voice coming from my ear. "Forgot to mention. Don't let the debris spread out. It might damage some of our own satellites."

"Sure," I said and then rethought how I was going to do this before an idea hit. I could push out clones to stand ready to engulf the thing in telekinetic barriers, cutting the thing in half. But I quickly disregarded it because they might be watching and they had no reason to know about the Clone technique, at least unless they had some variant of it.

Right now it was safer to err on the side of caution.

Which meant I had to do this on my own. I focus on the telekinetic barrier first, trying to form a sphere around the thing. I wasn't the best when it came to telekinesis, but I had been practising with my personal shroud enough that I could conjure it away from my person. I focused on creating a ball around the growing satellite, taking a few tries before I got the distance right; then I started closing the thing around the satellites.

At some point my telekinetic ball flickered out, which meant it had met a stronger force. The satellite was protected by a barrier stronger than my telekinesis, which meant I had to fall back on my speciality, but I had to make sure I destroyed every piece of the satellite such that it didn't cause debris.

I got into the stance and charged my Kamehameha for a minute before sending it forward. The ball hit and I detonated before it could push the satellite of out orbit, at the same time I quickly conjured a much bigger telekinetic ball around the detonation, though this was would be much weaker. It would serve the purpose of keeping any small pieces from escaping though.

I caught some, but wasn't sure I had caught all of the pieces. I threw the rubble further into space.

On the second satellite I was smarter. I split off the clones while still in the ship, hacking the clones so that they didn't take too much from my total reserves. It was a disadvantage of the clone technique that it split the total reserves evenly between clones create, which meant I had to create more clones than needed and then subsume some to regain their energy.

But I wasn't short on time and I could afford to labour through it. The second satellite was destroyed and the four telekinetic barriers appeared well before hand to catch the small pieces of rubble. We move onto the next seven before we were done and there were no satellites left.

We returned to Capsule Corp and it was already to bad news.

"They have three more up there," said Yamcha. "Positioned so they're watching Earth. But this time they're protected by ships."

"Damn it," muttered Bulma. "This was a test, most likely. They saw that our ship didn't have weapon capabilities and that Krillin was limited in how he handled it. Anything about the meeting yet?"

"In an hour," said Yamcha.

"Anything about us?" I asked, feeling slightly winded. "Seven Kamehemehas has taken a lot out of me."

Yamcha shook his head and then stopped as his phone rang. "Hello?" He paled. "Fuck," he muttered. "The Saiyan sent a freaking _monster_ to Central City. It landed and is starting to destroy the city."

"Where's Piccolo?" I asked and Yamcha repeated question to his phone.

"In Yunzabit Heights," said Yamcha. "He hasn't been told yet. Chiaotzu says he didn't want hostilities where the ship was concerned."

"He and I are known quantities," I said. "It's best if we fight the monster with the aid of the military. Sell the fact that we're the only Ki Practitioners on Earth."

"Are you sure you should be fighting with what you just did?" said Yamcha and he sounded worried.

"Between Piccolo and I it should be easy," I said. "Between the Destructo Disk and the Special Beam Cannon."

888

Piccolo and I flew out of the ship's hatch, landing on a building and watching the distance. Piccolo's ship quickly disappeared, too fast to even try to track. In the distance we could see the monster peeking out beyond the buildings with fighter jets already firing and avoiding swipes from the monster.

"Do you know anything about bugs?" Piccolo asked. He hadn't taken off his cloak, even with how powerful the thing felt. But then again, it didn't measure up to Piccolo's reserves, not that that meant much.

I shook my head.

"A cockroach can live for a time without its head," he said. "I'm not sure how long, but it's considerable. That thing could have the same thing going for it."

"Meaning what?" I asked.

"Meaning destroying its brain might not be our go-to," he said. "It can't fly, which means you'll have an easier time decreasing its mobility."

"You," I said, emphasising the last. "Does that mean you won't be helping?"

"My beam will be too thin," he said. "I'll try hitting its head. Hopefully it's brain will be there and any cognisance that it has will be gone. It will be erratic, but it won't be on the lookout for us."

I nodded and then we moved, tearing into the sky and then getting closer to the battle. We found a tall building and stopped, watching as half a dozen ships fired; spearing to the side and then raining down bullets. Not that it meant much where the monster's thick hide was concerned, though it was clear the more powerful missiles were at least hurting the creature.

Compound eyes turned to look in our direction and then the monster roared; moving slowly, the monster bent low and picked up a truck, throwing it in our direction. My first impulse was to dodge, but then the screaming started and instead I got into a low stance.

"Kamehameha!" I shouted, fast tracking the attack enough that there was _a lot_ of wastage, electricity crackling over my arms and the ball not too big. But still, when it hit, the truck exploded, sending smaller bits of debris slamming into side of the building and the buildings surrounding it.

"That was a waste," said Piccolo. He hadn't moved.

"I know, but—"

He shook his head. "The faster we stop him from attack the safer everyone is," he said, though he wasn't looking at me, instead looking at the ships in the sky. I turned my attention towards them and from their motions, still focusing on the monster, it didn't look as though they were going to attack us.

"Let's move," I said and then I speared down, hiding between the buildings and focusing power in my hands. I moved closer to the thick of the building, having to wade through a few people that were running and shielding myself from a rain of debris; but I quickly found a vantage point.

So close, I could almost see how thick the monster's exoskeleton was, but there were also joints which facilitate movements. Those would be my targets, small in the relative scheme of things which meant I had to make my disc on the small side for control, but large enough that it had enough energy could be imparted.

I got to work, creating the ball of energy and sending it spinning while flattening it; I pictured the image in my mind and the edges of the energy blade became jagged. The monster above me, swiping at buildings and doing its best at destroying the firing jets.

Unlike most bugs, the monster had two legs, both of which were constantly bent because they had to keep the monster's massive thorax aloft. The monster was humanoid and it was hunched forward, its arms mostly drooping and, when they were at rest, long enough that they dragged against the ground. The thing also had wing-like protrusion that looked as though they weren't fully formed.

The monster's legs were divided into three parts, with the joints occupying a small part of that; there was the foot, the lower leg and then the thigh; with how the monster was moving, the leg was the closest part and I focused on that. I pulled my arm back and threw, watching as the disc tore through the air. The monster moved, raising its leg up and I missed the joint; my disc hit the monster's exoskeleton and broke apart, the hide too thick.

The monster took another step and from my vantage it was hidden from sight. I moved, helping a few people by providing telekinetic cover and direction them away from the thick of the battle before I prepared another disc.

I was more careful this time around, watching how the monster was moving before I pulled my arm back for the throw. I quickly stopped before I did, feeling as there was a spike of energy and then something purple shot through the air, eliciting and deep shriek; changing position I could see as the monster stumbled forward and crashed into a building, its connection to its well disappearing.

Piccolo had been wrong, fortunately enough, and we wouldn't need to waste any more energy.

Bulma appeared, the ship above me and I flew into the sky, it took a little bit longer before Piccolo entered and we could move to the cockpit.

"There was another drop," said Bulma. "Another monster, but this one is as big a car." She pressed a few buttons and the image came up.

It was a white thing with red flacks all over its body; it stood on six spindly legs, it had an tail that looks as though it was made of bone and it was curled inward and under the thing; the face was small with a large crown made bone.

Bulma pressed another button and an image of the thing in action; it was fast and nimble, with every blast of missiles missing it and the thing grabbing the running crowd. Its tail would uncurl and grab a person, blood spraying before moving to the next target. Much like the first monster, it didn't look as though it had much of a strategy, just dodging blasts and attacking the nearest person.

"We can't keep doing this," said Piccolo. "Not just the two of us. We need to attack them or their going to keep sending these monsters while we bide our time."

I let out a sigh. "You're right. Is the meeting still on?" I asked.

"It's been pushed back a little because King Fuzzy has been taken underground," Bulma said. "It should go on in about five hours."

"Too long," I said. "Call Chiaotzu. Tell him to get everyone who would have been at that meeting together. Piccolo and I will take care of this thing, keeping its focus while people evacuate. We'll have to move everyone in major cities too."

"That's not going to be possible in such a short space of time," said Bulma. "Evacuations drills have been going on since Piccolo started his attacks. But they're still not at the point where we can evacuate a major city in under an hour."

"Also the question of where they would evacuate _to,"_ said Marian. "They're watching up there which means they might just shoot those things in a place with the greatest population density."

"So evacuations are futile," I muttered under my breath. I clenched my fists before pushing myself towards calm. "Is it even worth our time to save them?"

"Not really, no," said Piccolo. When all of us paused to look at him he explained. "For a normal person it's a year before they're reincarnated, which means that we can wish everyone who's died because of this attack back in a group after you guys no doubt wish back Goku."

"And if something happens, then?" I asked. "That forces us to use the dragon balls for another purpose?"

"Or you leave?" Bulma put in. "You had us fix the ship which means you're likely to be leaving soon."

"There'll still be dragon balls on Namek," said Piccolo. "Those can be used to wish everyone back. I give you my word that I'll wish them back if I leave."

Bulma, Marian and I shared a look before resignation clouded us all. It was the best plan and it meant that we'd be unlikely to die until the real battle began.

888

It was galling that he'd showed up, but there he was, sitting just over me, his short purple robot standing just to his right. I was surprised, though, that Gero didn't look the slightest bit smug that he could just there without us being able to do anything about it.

I pushed the anger to the side and instead focusing on the large fact that we were all, the most powerful people on Earth, in one room with King Fuzzy sitting at the head.

"I thought we head more time," he said, his first words. "All our scientists said we had more time."

"Wormholes," said Dr Briefs. "We didn't account for them. By Kami, we didn't even think they could be created. But they have and now here we are."

"It's scary thinking what else they could do if that the kind of tech they have under their belt," said Bulma.

"Of course that's not the priority," said a man. He wore a military uniform and had the insignia of the Northern Territories on his breast, he also had a plethora of medals stuck on his uniform. "We don't know anything about them. Their likeliest tactics, their numbers—"

"A thousand," said Chiaotzu. "I'm not sure about the degree of fighters, but there are a thousand beings around the ship, then there are their monsters. About seven still left in their cages."

"That's too little a number for an invasion," a man said.

"They could have large energy reservoirs," said Tien. "We haven't gotten close enough yet to feel them out. But…" He let out a breath, his expression terse. "Raditz, the Saiyan from before, if he focused too much energy in one energy blast then he could gouge out a massive chunk from the Earth, messing up the ecology and pushing us into an extinction level event.

"Those fighters there might be more powerful," he said. "Which means that, with a ship, they could just stand off in space, focus and the destroy the Earth from afar. But they're not, which has me thinking that the forces aren't really for the invasion. Instead they're here to search."

"Search for what?" asked King Fuzzy.

Tien stopped, looking between Piccolo and Chiaotzu. The former of the two let out a long sigh before he said, "You can tell them. The spell's been broken. They just sent out a mass message that they want the dragon balls. Between the mass panic, everyone had incentive to look for them and the spell aren't holding anymore."

"Spells?" said a woman. "What in Kami's name—"

"It's unimportant," said Piccolo and at his words silence broke through the room. "The dragon balls of myth are real, the aliens want them."

"Would they still destroy the Earth if we just gave them the things?" asked a woman, and she earned aghast expressions at that.

"They would," I said. "There's something greater going on. A greater war that they're fighting and the Earth's destruction is instrumental in that. I don't think we'll be able to convince them otherwise."

Gero looked towards Chiaotzu. "You seem to know things that are happening out of this room," he said. "Might I ask, how much time have we been given before they start destroying towns again?"

"An hour," said Chiaotzu, his tone flat and eyes set in a scowl. It felt like a perversion that Gero would be in the Lookout, where Lapis was still resting. But this were desperate times.

"Haven't any of our spaceships come to fruition?" asked a man. "I know my sector has yet to succeed. But between Capsule Corp and the Gero Foundation?"

"We have something that Piccolo's borrowed us but it doesn't have weapons capabilities," she said.

"And nothing has yet to come from our end," said Dr Gero.

"We have an hour and none of us are moving," said King Fuzzy. "They'll know that we're here, planning."

"We have to move quickly," I said. "The Carpet. Maybe we can take a team into the ship, destroy the ship's engine in a large enough blast that will destroy the ship."

"The Carpet?" a man asked, and there was curiosity there.

Chiaotzu's eyes glowed before everyone in the room who didn't have a passive telepathic barrier dropped. Gero was amongst those who didn't drop, and so were Bulma and her father. Dr Gero's robot reacted by Tien was already in front of it, his hand flooded with energy before he struck, cutting through the robot's neck.

"I assume you'll be imprisoning me, then," said Gero. "Even with the help that I could bring you?"

"You're too dangerous to let freely live," said Chiaotzu.

Dr Gero smiled. "When they wake up, they'll find out about this," he said.

Tien shrugged. "So be it," he said. Chiaotzu's eyes glowed again and this time Dr Gero fell asleep like everyone else.

"Krillin's plan," said Chiaotzu to Bulma and Dr Briefs. "Do you think you could give us bombs?"

Bulma nodded. "I have some, but they'll be on alert."

"Not if they see us, or at least some of us, still fighting," said Yamcha. "It's time to let the students out and helping in the fighting efforts."

"Good," I muttered. "They've been itching to take care of that thing in South City."

888

Chiaotzu could see the ship with his godly sight and with his telepathic prowess he could building an image of it in the Astral Plane. Bulma entered and took the thing in, traversing through it as she muttered to her guide.

"It shares some similarities with Goku's ship," she said. "The two are different, of course, because there are extra parts to all of this. Newer parts whose functions I don't entirely understand. But if it's anything like Goku's ship then the power source should be in the centre of the ship."

Chiaotzu warped the image until they were at the centre, looking at a small ball the size of Bulma's fist. It was too small, she knew, but the Saiyans had managed to be able to create the same pocket dimensions her father had created and they used that to house a system of nuclear power cells that would feed energy into the ship.

It was a much simpler version of the type of technology use by Piccolo's ship, though it picked energy up from a relatively much closer position. Bulma had been doing her best to figure out where the energy from Piccolo's ship was coming from but she'd yet to find a way to figure that out.

"There'll be redundancies in how the ship works," she said. "Programs to control the amount of energy that the ship takes in. That should be the first target."

"None of us exactly know how to work computers," said Yamcha. "Ash, a little, but what you're talking about—" Yamcha paled. "No."

"Of all of us," said Bulma. "I have the most amount of experience with xeno-code. I know their code and I'm a decent hacker."

"You'll be in the thick of it," said Yamcha. "In direct danger."

"That'll be true for me on the planet too if everything goes to hell," she said. "I get that you're worried about me. But this mission should be quick and stealthy. There might not even be a fight. Not to mention, that you _need_ me."

Yamcha let out a sigh.

Bulma continued, "There should be mechanisms on the ship to undo the shrinking of the ship's battery. For maintenance and that sort of thing. I've never been able to hack it, but I think that if we set off explosives, they'll mess up the thing enough that it will unfurl. Then we can detonate another series to set off a nuclear explosion."

"Good for the backbones of plan," said Tien. "But we'll have to go more in-depth."

Bulma nodded.

888

I descended on from the ship with Ash and Hisomo at my side, the three of us tearing down towards the city. A perimeter had been set by police and military, but even so there was an immense amount of damage on the ground, bodies lying strewn and the creature in the middle eating with its tail.

It was more animal than human, which meant things might be easier on our side. We landed, choosing to keep a wide berth from the creature but it still looked up, the mouth on its tail closing and the thing's head looking in my direction. I was the closest.

The thing moved quickly, flash stepping towards me but I had been ready. I splayed my hands in front of my and the automatic functions on my avatar activated: The first created a telekinetic barrier in front of my and activated the second; the second did the same and activated a third; this quickly happened and six telekinetic membranes form.

The flash-step took the creature through the first three barriers before it bounced back off the forth. Hisomo flash-stepped forward and but the creature dodged, its tail unfurling and shooting out; Ash covered Hisomo, manipulating the Astral Plane: The creature missed and Hisomo swiped up, his hand crackling and passing through the creature's tail.

I jumped forward, pushing a lot of energy through my leg before I spun, kicking through the thing's thin neck. The creature toppled on the ground, but it's energy well hadn't disappeared. Sensing this, Hisomo and I jumped back, putting distance between us and the thing as it found its feet, the head and tail growing back.

"Fuck," I heard Ash mutter. "There's a complexity to its mind. I think it might be smarter."

The creature skittered forward and I splayed my hand, reforming the barriers; it continued forward only to pass through my barriers, at the same moment something flashed at the corner of my eye. I ducked low and it was too soon because the tail and snapped out and towards me; energy flooded into my hands and I threw the ball into the thing's underside. The ball detonated and the thing was through into the air, landing only to get up again.

"Another complexity," said Ash. "And another because it's starting to lock me out."

"Then destroy its mind completely," I said as I watched the creature. "Hopefully it can't operate without its mind."

"Okay," said Ash, just as the thing skittered forward again. It stopped and started, creating too many after images to keep track off but it didn't attack me. Hisomo dodged back from the thing's tail and it changed direction, slamming into him with its bulk. He was pushed back and the creature tried to give chase before I was there, grabbing the tail and spinning the thing twice in hand, sending it slamming into a building.

It got up again only to stay in place.

"Got it," said Ash. "The mind's gone."

Another test, maybe? To see if were telepaths?

"Another set of deposits," said Marian in my ear. "Three ships have just been sent over to the North Capitol; two ships to Kame City in the Turtle Isles; and another for Witch City."

I pushed my hand into my ear. "Ben," I said. "You'll have to change into Goku and you'll have to lead your own team. They don't know that Goku isn't here and I don't know whether that works in our favour or not. They haven't asked for Raditz which might mean they think he's dead…" I took a breath, calming myself.

It felt so much like they were trying to tire us out by sending this fodder.

"Ben," I said again. "Do you think you can do it?"

"Yes sir," said Ben, though his voice sounded shaky.

"Doll and Lazuli will go with him. Piccolo will take the other," I said. "They might be trying to tire us out. That works in our favour, giving the others more time. We'll be going to the Turtle Isles," I said.

888

Ben appeared above Witch City dressed in the form of the Fallen Master. He dropped out of the hatch and flew down with his team around him, Brea took the front, she wasn't leader of this mission but Ben let him have it. He didn't want it for himself.

The sight of Witch City was odd when coming from the sky, the city was an oasis in the middle of a large stretch of desert. The myth was that the Great Witch Baba had bought the almost useless stretch of land from the government pretty cheap and, through magic, she'd turned the desert into fertile land.

With everything he'd experienced the last six months, Ben didn't doubt that it might be true.

The flew into the city, angling towards where the alien pods had landed and found their footing. Quite strangely, they found that there was little in the way of commotion even though the pods should have only just landed. As they moved closer, Ben found that the area had already been cordoned off by witched, with a blue membrane keeping small green creatures from escaping the spell.

"Oh thank Kami," Ben muttered, feeling more than a little relief.

888

"Found him, sir. Should I send a team?"

Nappa shook his head, a grin plastered on his face. "I'll fight Kakkarot and his compatriot," he said. "Just keep the ship running and looking out for if the capture me."

Raditz had been defeated because of their tricks and Nappa knew they likely would have more. But the thrill that they might pose a challenge was exciting, especially since they looked as though there were significantly stronger than when they'd fought Raditz. Perhaps even more powerful.

He moved through the ship and found his personal ship, entering the planet's atmosphere before tilting towards the Namekian ships position. He was prepared to shoot them down, but they were already in a deserted portion of the planet waiting for him. As he left the ship Nappa noticed for the first time that they'd chosen a place that was away from both their moon and the ship.

"Clever," he muttered looking at them all. Fighters prepared for battle, though Kakkarot was not amongst them. He punched his fists together, prepared to call Kakkarot forth the hard way.

888

AN: I didn't foreshadow the limits of the spell concerning the dragon balls, but I had thought of the mechanisms of the spell, just that I didn't have the appropriate place to put it in the story. The crux of it is: The spell was placed so that people _could_ find out about the dragon balls if they had sufficient enough motivation and knew about them.

Which is the reason that they're secret and yet people _can_ know about them. The rest is explained in-story.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

"Kakkarot won't be joining us, then?" Nappa said to his audience, his voice coming out absently as he paid them only periphery attention; most of his attention was seemingly on computer on his wrist, functions called up and then pressed, images of the various views of Earth being shuffled through as Nappa watched.

There were other fighters now who used their innate energies, helping in the efforts of some of the monsters Nappa's crew had released. They were making good effort, but Nappa could see that they weren't the best of fighters the Earth had, which made sense why they had been kept on reserve.

"No," said the short one. Krillin. He was one of Kakkarot's companions and he'd been the one leading the majority of the defence against Earth. Nappa made a mental note not to kill the human, making a further one to interrogate him. The being was interesting in the fact that he could get so powerful when the rest of his species wasn't, or was that a falsehood?

"He trusts that there won't be a fight," Krillin continued. "After all, you want the dragon balls."

Nappa shrugged. "Not just the dragon balls," he said. "I also want you and the Namekian and Kakkarot. But I can settle for just the latter. Something tells me the former was just a ploy to buy time before you could all hatch a plan against Raditz. Which you succeeded in doing and something I'll be in the lookout off, be warned."

"It was," said the Namekian. "But they're also real. If you could wait ten months you could use them again."

Nappa couldn't help it, he stopped pressing buttons, sifting between the feeds of the satellites over the planet and let out a loud guffaw. He was grinning as he stopped, looking between them all. There was the façade of confidence there

"Ten months, eh?" he said. "That's pushing it, don't you think?"

"It isn't," said the Namekian. "The dragon balls, after use, require a cooldown period of a year. We used them two months ago."

More time.

It had been fifteen minutes in total that had killed Raditz and was the same being said for them now? Nappa couldn't help that he found it interesting. For the longest time conquering world had been very one note, combat one note in that they were mainly feats of strength which eventually they won. But this was something different.

Trick and yet they were strong enough to blind-sight the opponent.

Raditz hadn't been the smartest of the person in their race and Nappa was certainly no genius, but by feat of age he'd learned a lot and one of those things was caution. It was that caution that wanted him to just rip forward and break them all before they could call their plans into action, but there was something else here, something which meant he had to think larger than how he normally thought.

That part shouted that it would be in his and King Vegeta's best interest because in this way they could fight Frieza; that part told him to let this plan unfold.

"I'm interested in the claim of the dragon balls," said Nappa. "Interested enough to, perhaps, repeat Raditz's mistake and give your more time. You have a minute to convince me that the dragon balls are indeed real and a sign of their power."

He was giving them more time and at this the two parts of his mind warred. A millisecond passed with this happening before a consensus was reached and Nappa started working.

Nappa put on a timer for a minute and then called up functions again, giving the ship finer commands on how it would act. Then he pulled up his feeds, watching the location of their ship. It was a danger because the ship was of Namekian technology and the Namekian race was the only race that had successfully managed keep Frieza at bay from their corner of the universe. The thing could have advanced weapons systems that might decimate his fighter ship.

He glanced at the timer. Thirty second had elapsed.

He pressed buttons, inserting commands for his ship to call out for reinforcements if he was incapacitated and the ship was destroyed. Then he went defined how the ship could fight, giving the bounds and restrictions before letting the AI take over the major portion of figuring out the _how_ of the fight.

The timer beeped and Nappa pressed the enter button. His ship behind him flared into life, pushing itself into the air and then just hovering there. Looking at the Earthlings they had reacted, getting into their various stances. Nappa noticed that one of them had disappeared, the boy with the jet-black hair.

Nappa tapped at his temple and the piece of technology unfolded, quickly so that a scouter had formed; through this he could see the energy reserves of the people in front of him, lower than he expected by some of their feats but he knew that this was a ruse. There were eleven signatures on the scouter while there were only ten people on the field. He pulled in energy from his reservoirs as he tapped his temple again and the scouter disappeared just as he let out a lance of energy from his eyes.

There was a flash, the readings on the scouter getting bigger before Krillin flash-stepped, disappearing from where he'd been and appearing in front of the beam with both hands splayed out in front of him; twelve blue-green telekinetic membranes appeared in front of him, each breaking from the beam, but causing the thing to lose power. By the tenth barrier the beam lost all impetus and disappeared.

"I'll take your attack as sign that you can't prove the existence of the dragon balls," said Nappa and he shrugged. "Not that anything short of a wish from the dragon balls might have proved your claim," he admitted. He let out a breath. "Where's Kakkarot? Any answer that isn't coordinates and I'll kill one of you."

A terse silence hung, before Krillin said, "Goku. You can show yourself, now." Another moment passed before Goku appeared from thin air, standing tall and his expression a little on the shaky side.

Nappa couldn't help the curiosity of wanting to know what they would have done and how it was that Kakkarot could turn invisible. He had to see more, force them to react.

"Good," said Nappa before he rushed forward, arm extending to grab Kakkarot's face. Krillin reacted, getting in front of Kakkarot and parrying the punch, spinning and then directing a kick at Nappa's side.

Nappa accepted it, pulling energy into his body and shrugging the kick off while he changed targets, closing both arms in a hug; Kakkarot reacted at that, a shroud of blue appearing over him, stretching out in tentacles and pulling Krillin back. Before Nappa could react to the change the Namekian was in front of him, its fist crackling as it drove forward a punch.

Nappa couldn't dodge and the punch landed. All at once his momentum was changed, pain erupting only to be shoved off into a construct and his feet digging into the ground to stop himself from moving back. Nappa's eyes met the Namekians and he could see the shock because Nappa hadn't budged.

The Saiyan flexed and everyone close was driven back by a shockwave. He lunged again before they could reorient and grabbed Kakkarot by the leg only for someone to lunge at him; Nappa pulled Kakkarot to the side and the incoming figure couldn't stop, he slammed into Kakkarot who promptly changed with a poof of smoke into another person.

It had been enough time that Krillin and the Namekian had reoriented and they moved forward; the Namekian on the offensive while Krillin angled to grab the poser. Nappa flew back and the dual attacks missed, passing through where he'd been; the poser tried to kick and Nappa but the saiyan brought his arm up, swinging the boy like a whip and then slamming into the ground.

Krillin and the Namekian made to lunge at him again but Nappa repeated the motion, slamming the boy hard enough to elicit a scream. Krillin stopped short while the Namekian continued forward. The boy wasn't fighting which made the next part easier; Nappa's tail unwound as he let the boy go, it snapped out and grabbed the boy by the throat.

The Namekian was on him and Nappa responded in kind; a swipe from the left and he ducked back, pushing energy into his eyes. The Namekian dodged and Nappa spun, much less to hit the Namekian but more to hit the forces that were trying to flank him; they slunk back, dodging and keeping their distance.

"Stop!" shouted Krillin and the battlefield did. Nappa grinned as he looked in the man's direction, was this where the trick came in?

"Don't kill Ben and we'll give you Raditz."

"He's still alive?" said Nappa and his mind stopped. Why had they left him alive or was this a lie? Had they prepared the trick well in advance and he was just falling into it?

The cautious part of his mind screamed to do something to end this, not to fall into their traps, while the far-planner wanted to see this move forward, to see how they would react and how they might help, if possible.

"Yes," Krillin responded. "We didn't kill him. He's being held in a prison. I can call to get him if you release the boy, promise that you'll leave Earth."

Nappa made a mental note to search for the Raditz but then shook his head.

"I could just kill the boy and use the next person as ransom," he said. "I have to make a point. I told you to give me Kakkarot's coordinates and you didn't."

"Let him go and I'll explain," said Krillin. "I know that it's unlikely that we'll win here. I have more incentive to tell you the truth, to better earn your favour and hopefully get the Earth spared."

"The Earth being spared is not something I can give you," said Nappa, though if he was right that the way the fought was unique, then it was something he would recommend to King Vegeta.

"But there is something else. You can give me a list of Kakkarot's friends, give me Kakkarot's coordinates and those people will not die when the Earth is scoured." Nappa shrugged. "You could even play me, invite your favourite people. The list is two hundred people max, even though it's unlikely that Kakkarot has two hundred friends."

Krillin shook his head. "That's not a deal I'm comfortable with taking," he said. "I can make you the same deal I tried to make with Raditz. We can help you in your fight with Raditz. Surely you've noticed that in such a short space of time we've managed to grow powerful enough to rival Raditz when we couldn't before."

"I notice no such thing," said Nappa and truly he hadn't.

"Then let me show you," said Krillin and then electricity ran over his body. Nappa pressed at his temple and his scouter returned, taking in the rising energy readings. He watched as the reading slowly climbed, nearer and nearer to Raditz's full capacity before it stopped; taking into account the high energy attacks and fights all over the planet, Nappa knew his reserves were larger than what he was showing now.

"You have my curiosity," said Nappa. "Tell me how you achieved this and I'll let the boy go. Hurry up, it'll be a little longer before he experiences _more_ brain damage."

"We have a room," said Krillin.

"Krillin!" the Namekian shouted, but Krillin paid him no mind.

"A room that makes a day out here to a year in there. We've used it to train," said Krillin.

"And can you prove the existence of this room?" he asked and Krillin nodded.

 _This is the trick,_ the cautious part screamed.

 _Play along,_ said the far-planner. _We know there's a trick and that puts us at an advantage. But we need to figure this out. See how they play it so we can recruit them._

Nappa loosened his tail, from behind him there was a feeble intake of breath. "You'll take me there," Nappa said to Krillin, then he pressed his wrist-computer.

"Commander Brein," he said. "Watch this position. If any of these people move, you have my order to release all of the monsters, spreading them out to every populated settlement on this planet."

"Yes, sir," Brein returned.

"Let's go," said Nappa to Krillin. "I'll release the boy when you've shown me this room and no tricks."

Though he really wanted to see the tricks.

"Of course," said Krillin before he followed Nappa into the ship. The two set course, with Krillin pointing the direction. Nappa looked to the satellite feeds and found nothing there, that was until he came close enough and a building that itself was a satellite made itself known.

A scan of the place showed two energy readings though they were strange in that the measurements were inconclusive. Maybe a glitch in the system or maybe more magic muddying how technology interacted with the place.

Nappa didn't venture any closer, instead making a call and setting an amount of time which, if he didn't send a signal, his crew would descend on the place. He landed and the two people on the building revealed themselves, one a being that was made of pure darkness, the other a short man that was ghostly white and with pink cheeks.

"Krillin," said the white man. There were a worried expression on him, eyes that had a blue glow to them looking at Nappa with a hint of fear. "I hope you know what you're doing."

"It's the only way that we might survive this without any of us dying," said Krillin. "We can't win this."

"Mr Popo, if you'll lead them to the Time Chamber," said the white man and the words that said with a resigned sigh.

Mr Popo gave a nod. "If you'll follow me," he said. The building was much bigger on the inside than it should have been and they spent a good while walking through the place, steadily going downward before they stopped in front of an ornate door.

Krillin turned to face Nappa. "The only way I can think to show you the room's effect is by going in," said Krillin. "I'll cut my hair, stay in a while and then come back with it regrown."

Nappa quickly shook his head. "This boy could change his form, it's possible that the same might be said for you too. Not to mention that you could also just keep training until your surpass me, with me being in such closed quarters, you could easily fell me. We'll go into the room together and I'll measure the time outside versus in."

Krillin shrugged and then opened the door into another room, he stepped inside. Nappa stayed on his side, waiting for the trap to spring. When none did, he took a step inside.

"So how does this work?" he asked.

"Once the door closes, the time of this room starts running," he said and at that, Mr Popo began closing the door.

Nappa felt impulse to stop the door, that this might be a trap but he pushed the feeling back. If this was a trap, then Krillin and the boy would be trapped too, and Krillin had already shown that he was invested in the boy's life.

The feeling got stronger as the door closed further, the panic becoming known when there was only a sliver left. When the door banged shut the impulse became outright panic as he _knew_ that something wrong had happened, because he felt that this was all suddenly stupid. He could have had one of his soldiers taking the risk instead of himself and yet he hadn't.

He pushed the door open and it didn't budge.

He whirled around to find Krillin lounging against a wall.

"What did you do?" Nappa asked, unable to restrain himself. His anger was leaking out and he was unconsciously pulling more energy than he was using, his skin crackling with electricity.

"That door is a portal to this dimension," said Krillin. "It's been destroyed on the other side which means we're trapped here. Ash chipped your mental defences and Chiaotzu breached then, they made you impulsive enough to enter, increased your curiosity enough to let this play along. Though that wasn't by much to be honest, you did much of that yourself. You're trapped and you can't get out."

"I could still kill him," said Nappa.

At that Krillin lunge forward, his hands surrounded by a telekinetic shroud shaped like claws. Nappa turned to the side, bringing the boy to the fore and trying to force Krillin to stop his attack. He didn't, instead he swiped, catching the boy at his neck and slicing part of Nappa's tail. They boy stopped breathing, blood gushing while the pain was off-loaded.

The motion complete, Krillin flew back and landed, his face was scrunched in pain as he let out a long breath.

"He'll be wished back to life," he muttered under his breath. "The same can't be said for me. But," he shrugged, "I don't much mind dying with all the people I've let that happened to while training for your arrival."

"This was a suicide mission?" Nappa said. "You fool. I have a thousand fighters that are ready to storm your planet, and with you gone there are only two strong fighter left. Even with your reserves surpassing theirs, numbers matter. They won't be able to win."

"Don't worry about that," said Krillin. "We made plans. You've most likely lost."

Nappa rushed forward, his fist crackling with energy and the punch primed. But he stopped because Krillin hadn't moved to dodge. He was willing to die, leaving Nappa in this place alone. Nappa moved beyond the little house, facing the void and found that he didn't like the prospect of that event occurring.

888

"INTRUDER ALERT!"

"We should have probably gotten more people," Yamcha muttered even as he mentally prepared himself. He looked with a pit of worry as Bulma moved into action.

She, like Yamcha and Tien, was wearing a sleek spacesuit with clunky helmet that ruined the entire thing; her suit was special though, with parts that were clunkier than his or Tien's, particularly at the wrist or the arm. She moved forward, pulling out a wire from her wrist and inserting it on a slot in the wall.

"We didn't know they'd have an alarm system this…thorough," said Tien. "But we probably should have. They'll be flooding this place with people and they might have defences on the ship which may be harder to counter."

"Clones," said Yamcha. "Get a feel of it."

Tien gave a nod and then split off into ten clones, absorbing six of them while the remaining four moved forward. The door opened at that point and Yamcha got into a stance only to find that there was no one there. He looked at Bulma but she wasn't paying them any attention as she said, "That's me."

The clones nodded before they moved off.

"Guard the door," said Tien. "It's taking all of me to keep track of the visual information."

Yamcha gave a nod and then waiting for the coming fight. For a few seconds it was boring, watching as Tien just stood in place and Bulma kept sliding her fingers on her wrists with her expression hidden by the darkness of her helmet. He could feel that there were fighters with various capacities of _wells_ on the ships, but it was hard to keep track since some were moving into and out of his range, the ship being so large.

"Trouble," said Tien. "A woman will be coming through the left. She got through a clone. The others are still scouting."

"Got it," said Yamcha and he moved forward and out of the room. He turned left and could see the woman running towards them. She wasn't clothed, though she didn't need it because she was covered by a white exterior that looked as though it was made of bone; she had cancerous bulges on her head that were also covered by a slightly yellow coloured exoskeleton; and it was finished off by four lengths that seemed like hair except they had mouth-like protrusions.

Yamcha got his footing right before he said, "Wolf Fang Fist!" and he lunged forward. The woman couldn't dodge as Yamcha made the first swipe, covered by his red shroud; it hit but it didn't slice through, instead causing thin lie that she seemed to be shrugging off.

She tried to move forward and Yamcha couldn't stop her because the appropriate avatar was going through the motions and disrupting it might destroy it; but the abrupt changes to his motions had her on the defensive, especially since some of the swipes were close to her face.

Yamcha anchored that in his mind as he completed the motions, letting a secondary avatar take over and push him back as the technique ended. The woman lunged forward and punched, Yamcha ducked under, spinning and the kick the woman back; he quickly recovered from the spin faster than the woman and then lunged close, forming a shroud and then swiping at the woman's face.

The woman's hair came on alert at that, elongating and then grabbing at Yamcha's arm and disrupting the shroud. There was just enough time that he managed to pull back his hand, spin out of the way and land, hands going to his side.

"Kamehameha!" he said, not even charging the technique or going through the proper mental conditioning. It came out small and feeble, but on detonation, it had enough power that the woman was pushed back and slammed into the opposing wall.

"Tri-Beam Cannon!" came Tien's voice and there was a shaft of light that hit the woman, pushing her further back and down where she'd come from. Yamcha looked in the direction. "All my clones are gone and I counted at least twenty people coming our way."

The woman was coming to her feat, getting into a fighting stance that looked, to Yamcha, cautious.

"Bulma?"

"She's having trouble," said Tien. "We've loaded the bombs but the explosion won't be as big as we want it."

"Counter-plan?" said Yamcha.

"We've got one," said Tien. He split off into ten clones again and all the clones were subsumed by another clone; it stepped forward and clapped its hands into a triangle, already crackling.

"I'll take care of this," said the clone. "You go."

Yamcha nodded and then moved back, still watching the woman as she just stood there, still on guard. He entered the engine room where bombs were placed and where the Carpet laid in wait with Bulma already standing on it; Tien stepped on and the scenery shifted, Yamcha expected the Lookout but instead it was a large room filled with a lot of personal ships.

Tien pushed Yamcha with the words, "Destroy the ships," and before Yamcha could respond, the pair disappeared.

Yamcha got himself into his battle-state, scanning and already pulling in energy for a defence that would rightly be needed. A part of him was scared that the bomb might gone off while he was still here or that he might have to fight Nappa on his own, but he pushed that back, focusing instead on the present.

The personnel on the ship weren't as large as Yamcha thought they would be, but then a large portion of them would have gone to check out the engine room which was at the centre of the ship; and with how large the ship was, it would take them a while to get there and then double back. Of the people that were present, a large portion looked as though they were support staff, but a large portion of them felt as though they were trained at least, enough that they would be able to manipulate ki going by only the sizes of their wells.

One being, and Yamcha couldn't tell if they were male or female, donned in armour that covered all of their body, shouted, pointing a long finger towards Yamcha. He ignored the being, instead forming energy balls in both hands and then sending them to the nearest ships.

They hit and detonated, and there was damage there but for the life of him Yamcha didn't know if it made sense or not. The being lunged forward but it was too slow, not enough energy put into the lunge to be too quick; Yamcha spun and kicked, his legs crackling with the amount of energy than he had pushed through. The being was thrown back and Yamcha didn't focus on them as he pulled energy and fired at more ships.

A flash caught his eye and he ducked, spinning to face a drone that turning to face to Yamcha.

"Wolf Fang Fist!" he said and he lunged before the thing could shoot and he was on it, his left hand moving for a swipe; the drone parted, the pieces falling to the ground but Yamcha could feel as his body followed through for the next motion of the attack.

He entered the Astral Plane and destroyed the avatar before it could push him further. He pulled back and immediately regretted being in the air because he was now a good target; a flurry of energy balls moved towards him and he conjured a telekinetic sphere around him that took a little of the impact but not all of it.

He was pushed back through the air and quickly stopped himself to quickly dart up into the air. He pulled in energy and began firing a salvo of energy balls wantonly to the gathered masses down below; they scattered, spreading out so that they were harder targets. They started returning the attack and Yamcha was forced down onto a ledge to at least stop wasting energy in flight.

He started running, pushing energy into an excess speed and punching a man that was trying to get in front of him; the man parried and then kicked. Yamcha was pushed back but he caught himself only for a ball of energy to slam into his size, detonating and pushing him to slam into a wall.

The pain was quickly pushed off to an avatar while Yamcha regained some composure.

For the first time he stopped focusing on the narrow path and instead spread out across the room to see that he was being surrounded. There were about thirty people all of them looking for a good vantage point to get at him and there was nothing he could do; and then the Tiens appeared on the Carpet, jumping off and the Carpet disappearing behind them with another Tien on it.

"Tri-Beam Cannon!" shouted four and the attack was sent into the groups on the ground.

Chaos was sparked by this, because the Tien clones had appeared on the ground out of seemingly thin air and all of them Tien's full well of power. The moment he thought about the how, the answer came to him: Tien must have given one clone the majority of this energy and eaten Senzu beans to fully replenish his well.

Then, "Kaioken times three!" and the chaos became more frantic as the clones, bathed in red fire, began decimating the people on ground and destroying the ships. It was a spectacle to watch and Yamcha was too caught up in watching this unfolding that he nearly missed the being that was moving on him.

He reacted in the last instance, pulling up a telekinetic barrier to block as the yellow man moved towards Yamcha. He prepared to lunge but something happened, the man let out an energy beam that passed through Yamcha's energy barriers; there was no heat or pain from the attack, instead it felt as though the world had spun and then he was staring at himself.

Yamcha watched, confused as his body moved towards him; he looked down as his body pulled a belt that was slung around Yamcha's waist, which was wearing clothes he didn't remember putting on, and then pulling. Tien appeared on a Carpet and Yamcha's body moved to the Carpet and the two of them disappeared.

888

"That's not Yamcha!" said Chiaotzu almost immediately, his eyes glowing.

"Kaioken!" said Tien and he swiped. The poser had enough going that he ducked, grabbing a small ball at his belt and throwing it.

Chiaotzu reacted the fastest, conjuring a sheet of telekinetic force that stretching like rubber when the ball hit, returning into the sender. The ball detonated, breaking apart and letting out a ball of light that formed into a person as Yamcha said, "Change Form Now!" while throwing the belt towards the body.

Tien rushed forward, catching the belt and weaved to the side as the body let out a beam of purple light. The body, large and dark red, muscular and with long black horns on his forehead which elegantly bent backward; the alien moved far quicker than Tien expected and the punch landed in his gut. The alien made for another attack but the arm stopped short as a blue chain appeared around it and pulled.

The alien looked back and Tien took the opportunity to attack, punching the alien to the ground. The alien quickly got to its feet and pulled the arm wound by the chain and it broke under the force; Tien rushed forward to attack but the alien seamlessly parried each of the attacks even dodging out of the way as a set of chains made to capture the alien again.

"Mr Popo, go get Piccolo!" said Chiaotzu and the man moved. The alien tried to stop this but Tien got in the way, pushing for the alien's focus and succeeding; Chiaotzu kept his distance, still conjuring psionic constructs that got in the alien's way and gave Tien the foreground.

But that was only for a second because the alien kept pulling in energy from what seemed like an endless well of power.

"Times six!" said Tien and he moved faster. The abrupt change in speed meant he clipped the alien in the face and before it could react slamming it down into the ground; Chiaotzu quickly acted and formed chains that wound around the alien getting thicker and bearing it down.

The alien jumped up but Tien was in its face, punching and sending the alien flying back before it stopped, pulling in a massive amount of energy and disrupting the chains without much exertion. Tien didn't stop, he could feel King Kai's energy filling him up and he knew that if he lost his access to the well of power he wouldn't be able to move.

He feigned a punch and then extended a kick but the alien was prepared for both and grabbed Tien by the leg, spun and then threw him against the Lookout. Before Tien could do anything the alien was in front of Chiaotzu with a hand filled with a purple ball of energy that was being thrust forward.

All at once Chiaotzu unfolded, a man made of blue psionic energy appearing over Chiaotzu's form and then grabbing the ball, pushing against it until it detonated: the conjuration disrupted, pushing both back and Tien flew forward to attack the alien. The kick landed and the alien spun through the air until he stopped with a flex of pulled in energy.

Tien was just barely hanging on to the energy he was pulling in and he could feel that the alien still had a large reservoir from which to draw from, but there was a look in the alien's eye that was of shock. Piccolo chose that moment to appear and said, "Special Beam Cannon!"

The alien glanced in the direction, moved to dodge but it was too late, the beam drilled through where the heart should be.

"Change Form Now!"

Tien pushed himself into the Astral Plane and he saw as the battle shifted, as the subtle hint of landscape shifted; he could see Piccolo's centre of Piccolo's range moved while the alien's did the same, both of them moving so that their astral grounds had shifted, all through this the gaze of Chiaotzu's behemoths was watching.

Tien pulled back and lunged at Piccolo. The man dodged to the side but his speed was lacking, the punch connected and pushed Piccolo's body into the ground; he quickly flipped and found his feet, focusing energy into his hands into a salvo of blasts; Tien slapped them to the side and rushed forward for a punch.

"Change Form Now!"

The world spun and then Tien was looking at his body as it rushed towards him too fast. He pulled in energy and braced but the punch was too powerful and he was smacked off of the Lookout, sent hurtling and finding it hard to stop himself because he didn't know the direction to fly to stop the forward momentum. He let this run its course before he could stop himself and fly back to the Lookout, when he returned, Tien's body was on the ground quivering.

The alien didn't know about the Kaioken and he'd let the connection to King Kai's energy well disappear, with that he'd let himself experience the full effects of letting go of the connection.

There was another alien, though, on the Lookout but Tien didn't let himself feel panic because Chiaotzu was calm.

"Piccolo?" he said, looking at the hurt red body.

"I'm here," Piccolo said in Chiaotzu's body.

"I learned the technique by watching him do it," said Chiaotzu in the form of the new alien. "He's in too much pain to be able to focus right now."

"We'll have to go and get Yamcha," said Chiaotzu.

"Won't the ship blow up?" asked Piccolo.

"A section, maybe," said Tien. "Bulma seemed to think it might be limited by redundancies. But whatever the case the ship won't be moving."

888

 _My body's been stolen,_ thought Yamcha and then he was moving; things were complicated but the he trusted that his friends would figure things out.

There were still things to be done.

The Tiens on the flour were being overcrowded now. They moved incredibly fast but the sheer numbers of opposing fighters meant that they were getting as good as they gave. In seconds the chaos that had been caused by Tien's clones was quickly subdued though the number of dead was quite large.

Yamcha stood on the ledge, watching with his stomach turning and twisting because he knew the bombs would go off. They must have, because all at once the lights turned from white to red before they quickly turned back to white again.

He couldn't help feeling that they hadn't succeeded in what they were trying to do.


End file.
